Bern
loc · Latin script
Meaning: short form; from a Bern- name stem, usually from 'bear'
Recorded as a male name· opposite-gender records fall within measured source noise
Bern is a name written in the Latin script, most frequently recorded in the United States.
- CHSwitzerland
- UAUkraine
- USUnited States
Where the name is found, darker where our sources hold more of it. No national register counts its bearers anywhere we hold data, so the map carries no figures. One hue, darker where it is more common; hover a country for its figure.
Meaning & origin(measured from records)
short form; from a Bern- name stem, usually from 'bear'
Sources 1
- Deutsche Namenkunde: Unsere Familiennamen nach ihrer Entstehung und Bedeutung
Attested in 1 language in the etymology graph.
Where in the world(measured from records)
Recorded in:
No national register we accept counts this name’s bearers, so the page lists where it is found and publishes no figure.
Country figures for a list of names, at full precision, are available under licence rather than by scraping this table (how that works).
Other recorded senses(measured from records)
Bern is also recorded in 5 other lexicons, as a different name or as an ordinary word. These are senses of the spelling, not of the name above.
In English, A placename
as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
In English, canton, city. Switzerland
as a namePronouncing Dictionary of Proper Names
In German, Undiminuierten einstämmigen Kurzform; patronymisch zu Rufname Bernhard. 179 Träger.
as a nameDeutscher Familiennamenatlas, Band 6: Familiennamen aus Rufnamen
In Afrikaans, Bern (the capital city of Switzerland; the capital city of Bern canton)
as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
In Faroese, Bern (the capital of Switzerland)
as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
Ordered by how much of this spelling's record each language holds, so a sense from a language the name is barely used in sits last rather than first.
Notable people with this name(measured from records)
- Maximilian Bernb. 1849DEGerman editor (1849–1923)
- Paul Bernb. 1889USGerman-born American film director (1889-1932)
- Bern Dibnerb. 1897USAmerican engineer (1897–1988)
- Mina Bernb. 1911PLAmerican actress (1911-2010)
- Bern von Baerb. 1911DEGerman general and Knight's Cross recipient (1911-1981)
- Bern Bennettb. 1921USAmerican broadcaster (1921-2014)
- Bern Carrièreb. 1921DEGerman psychiatrist
- Zvi Bernb. 1960USAmerican theoretical particle physicist
- Stéphane Bernb. 1963FRFrench journalist
- Ivar Bernb. 1967NONorwegian chess player
The ten people covered by the most Wikipedia language editions — a proxy for cross-cultural notability, which favours historical and Western figures over equally prominent contemporary ones — shown by birth year. Source: Wikidata (CC0).
Evidence(measured from records)
Attested in 33 sources across 18 countries.
Reference works 5
- Nederlandse FamilienamenBank (Dutch surname bank; ex-Meertens Instituut, now CBG)2007
- Wikipedia given-name tokens
- Wikidata name items (native-script + romanized given/family names)
- Rymut, Słownik nazwisk współcześnie w Polsce używanych (10 vols, IJP PAN, Kraków 1992–1994) — every Polish surname in the PESEL register at the end of 1990, with bearer counts nationally and per voivodeship1990
- Søndergaard, Georg, Danske efternavne (Lademann 1984/1991)
These works list the name; their figures are licensed and are not reproduced here.
Register rows as of the 2026-10-09 data build.
Frequently asked questions
- What does the name Bern mean, and where does it come from?
- short form; from a Bern- name stem, usually from 'bear' Recorded by Deutsche Namenkunde: Unsere Familiennamen nach ihrer Entstehung und Bedeutung.
- In which country does Bern have the most bearers?
- Bern is most frequently recorded in the United States.
What do you want to know about Bern?
Nobody replies to these one by one, but what readers ask decides what these pages answer next.
Query this name via API
curl -H "X-API-Key: YOUR_KEY" https://api.mondonomo.ai/api/v1/name-graph/bernThe payload this page is built from: spellings and scripts, countries and languages, related names, and the registers that attest the form. It takes a free API key (1,000 requests a day), which returns what this page shows everyone; the full country table, every register citation and the year-by-year series come with a licensed key, as does bulk access.
About this data
measured from records inferred from the name graph machine-generated
These figures come from the data snapshot of and will change as it is rebuilt.
Statistics are aggregated from the Mondonomo name corpus; related names and etymology are inferred from the name graph; pronunciation and any machine-marked transliterations are model-generated. Read how the numbers are made, including their known failure modes, and where the data comes from.
Reference works we consult — surname dictionaries, official name registers, Wikidata and Wiktionary — are named directly, beside the claims they support. The per-country source counts also include datasets of person records: we publish how many there are and their authority tier, but not their names.
Cite this page Mondonomo, “Bern”. Data snapshot 2026-10-10.