Boy names that mean bear
The bear is the one animal that northern Europe was afraid to name out loud, and the naming record shows it. Half the names below are honest compounds built on bern or bjǫrn; the other half are the traces of that fear — substitute words, poetic circumlocutions, and one famous name nobody can agree about.
- BernardBUR-nardGermanic
Bern (bear) plus hard (brave, hardy). The animal in this one has never been disputed by anybody.
- Bernardober-NAR-dooPortuguese
The Iberian Bernard, bear plus brave, and an everyday name in Portugal, Brazil and Spain.
- Beñatbeh-NYAHTBasque
The northern Basque form of Bernard. Basque borrowed the Germanic compound whole, bear and all.
- BjornBYURNOld Norse
Bear, from bjǫrn — itself generally explained as a substitute word meaning the brown one.
- BjarneBYAR-nehScandinavian
Bear cub, little bear. An affectionate form built on the same bjǫrn.
- AsbjornAHS-byurnOld Norse
The gods plus the bear: áss, one of the Æsir, and bjǫrn.
- EsbenESS-benDanish
Asbjørn after several centuries of Danish wear. God-bear, unrecognisably compressed.
- EspenES-penNorwegian
The Norwegian outcome of the same Asbjørn. Same two elements, different erosion.
- ThorbjornTOR-byurnOld Norse
Thor plus bjǫrn — the god's name in front of the animal, and by extension a fighting man.
- VetleVET-lehNorwegian
Literally winter-traveller, from vetr plus liði. As a common noun it meant a bear cub: one that has come through its first winter.
- OtsoOT-sohFinnish
Bear. The ordinary modern word is karhu; otso is one of the poetic substitutes used when the animal's own name was not to be spoken.
- BarrettBA-ritEnglish
Two live candidates: Old French barat, strife, or a Norman form of Germanic Berhard, bear plus brave. Genuinely disputed, so take the bear as a maybe.
- ArthurAR-thurWelsh
Traditionally glossed from Celtic artos, bear. The competing derivation is the Roman family name Artorius, and the question is open. #87 in the U.S.
- Arturoar-TOO-rohSpanish
The Spanish and Italian Arthur, and it inherits the same unresolved etymology along with the sound.
- Arshakar-SHAHKArmenian
Usually derived from Old Iranian aršan, man or hero; a competing reading gives arša, bear. Neither is settled.
Three kinds of bear name
The Germanic compounds. Bernard, Bernardo and Beñat are one name in three languages: bern, bear, plus hard, brave. Bjorn, Asbjorn, Esben, Espen and Thorbjorn are the Norse branch, where bjǫrn either stands alone or takes a god in front of it. Esben and Espen are worth a second look — both started life as Asbjørn and were ground down so far by Danish and Norwegian speech that the bear is invisible unless you know it is there.
The names that avoid saying bear. Hunting cultures across the north treated the bear's real name as dangerous, and replaced it. Germanic bjǫrn is itself widely read as a euphemism meaning the brown one; Finnish otso is one of several poetic stand-ins for an animal ordinarily called karhu; and Vetle means winter-traveller, the everyday word for a cub that has survived its first winter. Three languages, three ways of not naming the same animal. Hungarian did the same thing with the wolf, which is how Farkas came to mean the tailed one.
The disputed ones. Arthur, Arturo, Arshak and Barrett are on this page with their hedges attached. Arthur is the big one: Celtic artos, bear, is a real and old proposal, but so is the Roman name Artorius, and no one has closed the case. If the bear matters to you more than the sound does, take one of the compounds instead. Otherwise the meanings index has the neighbouring animals.