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To me, it sounds very dated and elderly, and it makes me think of the dog. However, if I had to use it, I'd use the nickname Bear rather than Bernie.

This message was edited 6/15/2019, 12:21 AM

Ugly, musty, and old. Blech

I really like it.

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My family are big nicknamers and if I had a son named Bernard I would probably call him Bear.

I really like Bernard a lot, but only if the first syllable is emphasised. berNARD isn't what I'm used to, and I don't expect I'll ever get used to it, so ... maybe in Fantasyland it would be safer to be faux-German and use Berndt. Outside Fantasyland I wouldn't use it at all: too many names I like better.

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I'd also avoid Bernardette, Bernarda etc. And I know a Bernice with a German father, Bernhardt; her parents 'named her after him', in their own estimation anyway. I like Bernhardt and would use it or Berndt if I'd married a German, but I really don't enjoy Bernice at all.

It's my brother-in-law's name. He goes by Bernie. Maybe I'm saying something I shouldn't, but it's the truth: My sister has never liked her husband's name because she thinks it sounds Jewish. When she had first met her husband but my father had not yet, and my father heard his name was Bernie, he said, "Bernie? Sounds like some Jewish guy from Brooklyn." (Did my father harbor some anti-Semitic feelings? Yes, he did.)

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Actually, Bernie is of French Canadian parentage and is Catholic. At any rate, my sister didn't dislike Bernard enough to refrain from giving it as a middle name to their second son. It is his middle name.

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So what do I think of it, you ask? I think it sounds like a Jewish guy from Brooklyn. LOL I kid. But it does sound old to me, and heavy, and I don't care for Bernie, and the reason I don't has nothing to do with Judaism. It just sounds goofy to me. Although my brother-in-law is not at all goofy or goofy-looking, he hasn't been able to shake that image.

Hi !!!

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I find its sound unappealing.

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I much prefer Bernie and Barney used as full names rather than it.

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A feminine form that I like is Bernadette.