Skip to main content

Updated June 9, 2019

Family name origins & meanings

  • German : occupational name for a swineherd, from Middle High German bēr ‘boar’ + man ‘man’.
  • German : occupational name for someone who exhibited a bear (see Bearman).
  • North German : from a short form of any of the various medieval personal names derived from Germanic compound names with the first element ber(n) ‘bear’.
  • Jewish (Ashkenazic) : variant spelling of Berman.

Join the Family

Your partner in parenting from baby name inspiration to college planning.

Subscribe