Berner Family History

English: from the Norman personal name Bernier. English: from Old English beornan ‘to burn’, hence an occupational name for a burner of lime (compare German Kalkbrenner) or charcoal. It may also have denoted someone who baked bricks or distilled spirits, or who carried out any other manufacturing process involving burning. English: occupational name for a keeper of hounds, from Old Norman French bern(i)er, brenier (a derivative of bren, bran ‘bran’, on which the dogs were fed). Southern English: topographic or occupational name for someone who lived by or worked in a barn, from Middle English bern, barn ‘barn’ + the suffix -er. Compare Barnes. German: habitational name, in Silesia denoting someone from a place called Berna (of which there are two examples); in southern Germany and Switzerland denoting someone from the Swiss city of Berne. German: from the Germanic personal name Bernher meaning ‘lord of the army’. North German: occupational name for a lime or charcoal burner (cognate with 2), from an agent derivative of Middle High German brennen ‘to burn’.

Source: Dictionary of American Family Names ©2013, Oxford University Press