my mother is French and considered it for a long time but she liked the other name better (the one I have now) and was also worried people would call me
Barry or
Berry. She said she almost named me after a character in a book, but I don't remember the title.
It's pronounced beh-reh-NEES in French. But the EH is really long, not short. You can listen to it here:
http://de.forvo.com/search/berenice/
I don't like the other pronunciations but I do like
Bernice.
It's funny, but I actually did meet another one in school. Her sister was named
Chantal and they were both
German.
This message was edited 7/25/2012, 9:30 AM