Names That Mean Bear

The adorable animal name made its way into the baby name pool when Macklemore used it as the middle name for his daughter Colette in 2018.

If you're looking for a girl's name that honors an ancestral Arthur, try Artis.

Bjarni is an ancient name derived from Bjǫrn, the Old Norse name and word for bear. Today Bjarni is primarily used in Iceland.

This Dutch name is a spelling variation of Sibren, derived from the Old German names Sigbern and Sigbrand.

Strong and distinctive Scandinavian name with a powerful meaning to match.

Deceptively close to Bernardo, but suaver.

Birna is unlikely to be a hit in the US, but it's a current favorite in Iceland. Birna is also used in Finland and Scandinavia.

Torbjorn, written as Torbjörn in Swedish and Torbjørn in Norwegian, is derived from the Old Norse Þórbjǫrn, meaning "Thor's bear." It's currently a grandpa name in Scandinavia, but some ahead-of-the-curve parents have revived it for their sons.

A Swedish old-man name that is currently attracting more attention in its country of origin. It might be a hard sell in the English-speaking world, but a similar name like Torben or Torsten — or even just Tor — could function as a substitute.

Berangere has never seen much usage in the US, but it has an interesting meaning of "bear spear." The name it stems from—Berengaria—was used as a common royal name during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries.

The slashed O form of Bjorn is standard in Norway and Denmark. The umlaut variation, Björn is used in most other languages today.

The oldest, true original form of Björn, now obsolete.

Artús is a form of Arthur used in minority languages of southern France and northern Spain, such as Occitan, Asturian, and Catalan. In 2023, a French couple had this spelling rejected when registering their son's name, because it contains an accent not used in standard French.

This Yiddish boy name is the vernacular form of the Hebrew name Dov — both meaning "bear".

Corsican form of Ursus

Too close in sound to the so-far-out-it-will-always-be-out Bernard.

If you're looking for a girl's name that honors an ancestral Arthur, try Artis.