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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

Bern.

A placename

4 characters1 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

name/bɜː(ɹ)n/UK/bɝn/US/bɛ(ɹ)n/

  1. A placename A federal city of Switzerland; the capital city of Bern canton.

    countable · uncountable

  2. A placename A canton of Switzerland.

    countable · uncountable

  3. A surname

    countable · uncountable
Where this word comes from

From Alemannic German Bärn, of uncertain further origin. A popular folk etymology says it was named by its founder, Berthold V, Duke of Zähringen, after the first animal he saw in the area, a Bär(in) (“bear”) (compare Berlin, subject to a similar folk etymology). The name is now thought to be connected to a Celtic word, Proto-Celtic *berna (“cleft”) (from Proto-Indo-European *bʰerH- (“to carve out, cut”)) and *branos (“raven”) (compare the name ΒΡΕΝΟΔΩΡ (BRENODŌR), on the Bern zinc tablet, which has also been connected with the Gaulish name Brennus). More at Bern.

name/bɜː(ɹ)n/UK/bɝn/US/bɛ(ɹ)n/

  1. A unisex given name, variant of Bernie. A diminutive of the male given name Bernard, variant of Bernie.

  2. A unisex given name, variant of Bernie. A diminutive of the female given names Bernadette and Bernice, variant of Bernie.

Where this word comes from

Abbreviations * Clipping of Bernard. * Clipping of Bernadette. * Clipping of Bernice.

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.