Meaning and background
The story behind Bernard
Bernard is a well-established Germanic personal name built from elements meaning “bear” and “hard, firm or brave”. The Normans brought it to England, where it displaced a related Old English form. British speakers commonly say BUR-nəd, whereas French and American pronunciations differ. Those linguistic and historical facts are more reliable than treating the bearer of the name as necessarily fearless.
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About Bernard
Recorded as a dog’s name
Bernard appears in 10 dog licence records in the 2026 New York City dataset.
How to read this count
These records cover New York City and may count the same dog in more than one licence period. They are not a national popularity ranking.
Pronunciation and rhythm
/bɚnɑɹd/
US English sound sequence, converted from the CMU dictionary. Stress marks are shown separately.
Other dictionary readings and notation
/bɚnɑɹd/ · primary stress on syllable 2B ER0 N AA1 R D
/bɝnɚd/ · primary stress on syllable 1B ER1 N ER0 D
These are US dictionary readings. Personal, regional and other language pronunciations may differ.
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Sources and research notes (2)
- New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene NYC Dog Licensing Dataset — extract_year 2026 — Dog licence periods, not unique dogs; NYC only. No owner-level fields retrieved.
- Carnegie Mellon University / CMU Sphinx maintainers CMU US English Pronouncing Dictionary — US English dictionary readings; not owner-specific or exhaustive multilingual pronunciation
References support the individual facts shown. A source link does not mean the entire profile has been verified.