A man of Gondor and the father of Beregond. The name also appeared in an genealogy chart of the House of Bëor, where Baranor was the younger son of Baran (WJ/230). The meaning of the name is unclear, as is its language. The name is Sindarin in form, but it could be Bëorian like other ambiguous names such as Baragund. If it is Sindarin, it might be a combination of [N.] bara “eager” and the suffixal form of naur “fire” (as suggested by David Salo, GS/343).

Conceptual Development: In Lord of the Rings drafts from the 1940s, this character was first named Turgon, but the name was shortly change to N. Baranor (WR/282, 288).