Brainard is a surname. Notable people with the surname include:
Asa Brainard (1841–1888), American baseball pitcher Bertha Brainard (1890–1946), American broadcast executive Byron B. Brainard (1894–1940), Los Angeles City Council member Cam Brainard (born 1962), American voice actor and radio personality Cecilia Manguerra Brainard (born 1947), Filipino American writer Charles L. Brainard (1903–1988), American presidential library commissioner Daniel Brainard (1812–1866), American surgeon David H. Brainard (born 1960), American psychologist and vision researcher David L. Brainard (1856–1949), American Arctic explorer and soldier Edwin H. Brainard (1882–1957), American Marine aviation pioneer Ingrid Brainard (1925–2000), German dance historian J. Edwin Brainard (1857–1942), Lieutenant Governor of Connecticut James Brainard (born 1954), Mayor of Carmel, Indiana Jeremiah Gates Brainard (c. 1759–1830), Justice of the Connecticut Supreme Court Joe Brainard (1942–1994), American artist John Gardiner Calkins Brainard (1795–1828), American lawyer, editor and poet Josh Brainard, ex-guitarist for Slipknot Lael Brainard (born 1962), member of the U.S. Federal Reserve Board of Governors Mary Gardiner Brainard (1837–1905), American writer of religious poetry Michael Brainard (born 1965), American actor William Brainard (born c. 1935), American economist