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
Brainard Cheney (1900–1990), American novelist
Cecilia Manguerra Brainard (born 1947), Filipino American writer
Charles L. Brainard (1903–1988), American presidential library commissioner
Daniel Brainard (1812–1866), American surgeon
David Legge Brainard (1856–1949), American Arctic explorer and soldier
Ingrid Brainard (1925–2000), dance historian
J. Edwin Brainard, Lieutenant Governor of Connecticut
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, senior fellow at the Brookings Institution
Mary Gardiner Brainard (1837–1905), American writer of religious poetry
Michael Brainard (born 1965), American actor
Roger Brainard (born 1951), American guitarist
William Brainard, American Economist
