Bran of House Brandon

[Corvo the Crow]

.

[Moiraine Sedai]

You mean the Night’s King. The Starks wanted to distance from the scandal. Yes, it is possible the family made changes to obfuscate the connection. 

[Corvo the Crow]

.

[Moiraine Sedai]

Families probably did not have last names during the earliest times. Essos is said to be the origins of humans. 

[Corvo the Crow]

.

[Evolett]

On 9/27/2022 at 9:16 AM, Corvo the Crow said:

CoA changes are not unheard of, one example is house Toland with their ghost being changed to a dragon. Blackwoods are another example since their Weirwood wasn’t always a dead one, their CoA must have been different than today. We also know of lords that take the CoA of their wives, Lann the Clever took the golden lion of Casterlys, Orys Baratheon took the black stag of the Durrandons. Gaven Greywolf seems a likely candidate for the origins of the Stark’s grey direwolf.

There's a difference between an established house changing a sigil and an individual taking over the sigil of another vanquished house. Neither Lann the Clever nor Orys Baratheon were members of a particular house while House Toland switched to the dragon biting its own tail as a sigil after successfully outwitting Aegon I, the dragon sigil essentially a mocking element. Gaven Greywolf was defeated by a King of Winter, thus at a time House Stark already existed. If Gaven was a very powerful skinchanger and difficult to defeat, I suppose it's possible the Starks took the running direwolf to show their disdain for the man and victory over him - similar to the example of House Toland. 

We don't know if House Stark existed prior to Bran the Builder or the founding of Winterfell. But of course being a son of Garth Greenhand, Brandon of the Bloody Blade may have followed in the footsteps of his half-siblings and founded House Brandon, taking a bloody blade as his sigil (since this presumably was his claim to fame). This is just speculation based on your hypothesis. 

 

On 9/27/2022 at 9:16 AM, Corvo the Crow said:

Remember the line of Durran? All those Durrans from house Durrandon named after the founder of their house, Durran? “-don” Suffix likely means something like “son”

I've always thought of the "-on" suffix as alluding to something being in place, being active, activated or switched "on." For instance, the name "Durran" suggests durability but symbolically the Durrandons only became the epitome of durability with the building of the 7th castle that withstood the storms sent by the angry gods. With the take over by the Barathe-ons, the castle is symbolically breached and once more ruled by a godly storm (theon = godly - alluding to Robert's godly image as a Horned Lord, Bara - alluding to the Bora winds - strong northerly winds). Bolt-on suggests a firmly shut door. 

Brand-on suggests a fire component, a brand which is active, a mark. Ned's brother Brandon and Bran are the two Brandons we know a bit more about. Brandon was a temperamental fellow, the wild wolf with wolf-blood. Bran expressed his rashness or "wildness" through climbing which Old Nan says comes from the wolf-blood inherited from an ancestor named Arya Flint. A temperamental rash nature suggests heat, we think of persons with this trait as "heated" or "fiery." This then suggests that characters named Brandon may have inherited the wolf-blood trait and that this trait is in fact associated with fire. Interestingly, Janos Slynt accuses Jon of having "the mark of the beast" on him. By beast he means a skinchanger but a brand is also a mark on the skin. And Jon is a symbolic Brand-on by way of the fire that burned his sword hand. Incidentally, Janos Slynt took a bloody spear as his device. There's definitely something going on there. 

Generally, regarding the Starks, I do see a change in CoA somewhere along the corridors of history as a possibility.