A late form of Old English Beornh(e)ard, 'warrior brave.' Bernard filius Briani witnessed gift by William de Haya of the land of Ederpoles to the monks of Cupar in the reign of William the Lion (SCM., II, p. 304), and a Bernard was chaplain of Dunkeld in time of Richard, bishop of Dunkeld (RAA., I, p. 149). Adam Bernard of Hiltone, Perthshire, rendered homage, 1296 (Bain, II, p. 212; on p. 203 he is named Adam Bernak of Hilton). Bernard, Abbot of Arnbroath, chancellor of the kingdom, 1307—1329 is credited with the authorship of the remarkable letter sent to the Pope in 1320 proclaiming the independence of Scotland. Alexander Bernard was cellarer of the Abbey of Cupar Angus, 1492, and James Bernard was tenant of part of Kethyk belonging to the same house, 1495 (Cupar-Angus, I, p. 247,304). James Bernarde, witness in Glasgow, 1551 (Protocols, I), and Arnchibald Bernard is recorded in Harlaw, parish of Wemyss, 1616 (St. Andrews CR.).

(Teutonic) 1 Warrior-Brave. [Teutonic Bernhard, Beornh(e)ard,&cc.—O. Frank, cog­nate of Old English beorn, biorn, warrior, prince + O.Frank. hard-Old English h(e)ard, hard, brave] 2 Bear-Brave. [Scandinavian Biörnhard-Old Norse biörn, a bear + harð-r (Dano-Norwegian haard), hard, brave] This name has frequently been adopted in Ireland as a substitute for the native Brian or Bryan.

See Barents.

(French, English) Descendant of Bernard (bear, firm).

A well-known Teutonic personal name.

A well-known personal name.

(Saxon.) From Bearn or Bairn, a child, and ard (Teutonic.), nature, disposition; of a child—like disposition; filial affection. Verstegan brings it from Beorn, heart—one of a stout heart.

A name frequently mentioned in Normandy, 1180-91(Magni Rotuli Scaccarii Normanniae). Hugo Bernardus occurs in Lincoln, 1130 (Rot. Pip.). He witnessed the charter of Roger of Poitou in Lancaster, c. 1100. About 1200 Robert Fitz-Bernard, of Lancashire, granted lands at Howath to the Knights Hospitallers, and mentions Bernard, his son (Mon. i. 507).

From this line descend the Bernards, Earls of Bandon, and probably the family of Howath or Howarth.

The surname Bernard has a complex history in Louisiana.

Although, like others of French origin, the name is concentrated in the southern part of the state, the Bernard families of Louisiana descend from a large number of forebears who came from France, Canada, Acadia, the West Indies, and even from Germany. Immigration started in the early days of the colony and continued well into the last century.* Several Bernards were in New Orleans soon after the city was laid out in the early 1720s.

For the next hundred years Bernard families, some directly from France, others from St. Domingue in the West Indies, continued to migrate to New Orleans, and by 1850 the city contained 48 Bernard households (including free persons of color).

Probably many of the more than 200 Bernard families living in New Orleans today can trace descent from the nineteenth-century immigrants.

A far greater number of Bernards settled early outside New Orleans, chiefly along the Mississippi above the city and in the Teche country of the Attakapas. Prior to 1750 one André Bernard, of uncertain provenience, married into the Waguespack family of St. Charles Parish.

His many descendants continued to live in St. Charles, St. John, and St. James parishes, but two of his grandsons, Jean-Baptiste (m. 1807 Marie Melancon) and François-Joseph (m. 1812 Marie-Clémence Roger) in the early nineteenth century moved to the Lafourche, where they began a branch of the family in the vicinity of present Thibodaux.

By the 1870s some members of this branch had moved down bayou as far as Lockport and Larose.

The largest branches of the Louisiana Bernards were begun by two brothers who entered the colony during the mid-1760s-Michel and Pierre, sons of Jean-Baptiste Bernard and Cécile Gaudet of Beaubassin, Acadia.

Michel, his wife Marie Guilbeau and two children went directly to the Attakapas, settling in the Carencro area, whereas Pierre, wife Marguerite Arseneau, and their children made home along the Mississippi in St. James Parish.

Of Michel's three sons, Jean-Baptiste (m. 1782 Marguerite Broussard) produced the largest contingent of Bernard descendants in the Attakapas; some, such as grandson Jean (m. 1803 Scholastique Girouard) settled in the Cöte Gelée district near St. Martinville, others, such as François (m. 1812 Louise Caruthers) in the Carencro-Grand Coteau prairies.

The descendants of sons Michel, Jr. (m. 1788 Marguerite Broussard, plus two later wives), became small farmers along the Teche, from Fausse Pointee near New Iberia to beyond Arnaudville.

Today, 27 percent of the state's Bernard households, most of them probable descendants of Michel, reside in the Bayou Teche-Lafayette area.

A few of the descendants of progenitor Pierre and wife Marguerite Arseneau remained in St. James for much of the nineteenth century, but others settled on the west bank of the Misssissippi in Iberville and West Baton Rouge parishes;12 still others, such as Pierre's son, Pierre, Jr. (m. ca. 1785 Anastasie Breaux), by the 1790s had joined their Bernard relatives in the Carencro prairies.

To complicate the story further, a grandson of progenitor Pierre, Michel (m. 1806 Justine Arceneaux) ca. 1811 moved from St. James to Bayou Lafourche in Assumption Parish and eventually settled near Thibodeauxville, beginning a new line of the Bernards,14 but one unrelated to those descended from André of St. Charles, who had come to the Lafourche about the same time.

At least two early Bernard families settled elsewhere in Louisiana. By 1774 Élie Bernard (m. Éléonore Chagneau) from La Rochelle, France, was living at Grand Écore, just north of Natchitoches Post on the Red River,15 where he started a small line of the family, members of which may still live in the vicinity. Later, in the early 1800s a François Bernard of Quebec, who married Hélène Chenevert of Pointe Coupee, established a farm in the Avoyelles prairies,16 becoming the progenitor of the present Bernards of that area