Braintree is a town and former civil parish in Essex, England. The principal settlement of Braintree District, it is located northeast of Chelmsford, northwest of Southend-on-Sea , and west of Colchester. According to the 2021 Census, the town had a population of 43,492, while the urban area, which includes Great Notley, Rayne, Tye Green and High Garrett, had a population of 55,792. Braintree has grown contiguously with several surrounding settlements. Braintree proper lies on the River Brain and to the south of Stane Street, the Roman road from Braughing to Colchester, while Bocking lies on the River Blackwater and to the north of the road. The two are sometimes referred to together as Braintree and Bocking, and on 1 April 1934 they formed the civil parish of that name, which is now unparished. In 1931 the parish had a population of 8912. Braintree is bypassed by the modern-day A120 and A131 roads, while trains serve two stations in the town, at the end of the Braintree Branch Line. Braintree is twinned with Pierrefitte-sur-Seine, France, and gives its name to the towns of Braintree, Massachusetts and Braintree, Vermont, in the United States. Toponym The origin of the name is obscure. Braintree was also called "Branchetreu" in the Domesday Book. Another variation can be seen in various Medieval Latin legal records, where it appears as "Branktre". In many early American Colonial documents, it is referred to as Branktry. One theory is that Braintree was originally Branoc's tree, Branoc apparently being an ancient name. Another theory is that the name is derived from that of Rayne, which was actually the more important settlement in Norman times. A third theory is that the name means "settlement by the river Bran or Braint". The name "Braint" is well attested as a river name in Britain; there is a river of that name in Anglesey, and it may be conjectured that it was the name of the Blackwater in pre-Saxon times, although the Celtic name "Bran" is also used widely for rivers (derived from the British word for a crow and thought to refer to the dark or crow-black appearance of such a river, making it a good fit for a river now called "Blackwater"). The suffix to either Braint or Bran is the Common Brittonic word tre widely found in Wales and Cornwall, but also noted in other town names such as Daventry, with the