It sounds weird indeed. The literal translation of branching would be «ramificar», which also doesn't seem right. That's the problem: everyone comes up with their own translations that are not what people refer to them in real life.

I say «crear una rama» (create a branch), while most of my friends just say «hacer un branch» (make a branch). And there are also the ugly anglicisms like «branchear» and «forkear».