MARK BRANDON

From the Latin name Marcus, borne by the Evangelist, author of the second gospel in the New Testament, and by several other early and medieval saints. In Arthurian legend, King Mark is the aged ruler of Cornwall to whom Isolde is brought as a bride by Tristan; his name was presumably of Celtic origin, perhaps derived from the element march ‘horse’. This was not a particularly common name in the Middle Ages but was in more frequent use by the end of the 16th century.

English: habitational name from any of various places called Brandon, in County Durham, Northumbria, Norfolk, Suffolk, Warwickshire, and elsewhere. Most are named with Old English brōm ‘broom’, ‘gorse’ + dūn ‘hill’. One in Lincolnshire, however, may be named with the Brant river, on which it stands; Ekwall derives the river name from Old English brant ‘steep’, presumably with reference to its steep banks.