The area is now part of Gran Municipality in the traditional district of Hadeland.

During the 1960s, there were many municipal mergers across Norway due to the work of the Schei Committee.

The first element of the name comes from the plural genitive case of the word brandr which means "burned" or "fire".

[6] The municipal council (Herredsstyre) of Brandbu was made up of 25 representatives that were elected to four year terms.

The party breakdown of the final municipal council was as follows: The mayors of Brandbu: