Entry № 1372 · French origin

Bernadette Bernadette — Meaning, Origin & Baby Name Popularity

/ ber-nah-DET /
Gender
Girl
Origin
French
Meaning
"Brave as a bear (Saint Bernadette of Lourdes)"
Syllables
3
First recorded
Modern (French)

A name that means "brave as a bear (saint bernadette of lourdes)".

Bernadette is the French feminine diminutive of Bernard — from the Old Germanic bern (bear) + hardu (brave, strong). Lourdes has become the most-visited Catholic pilgrimage site in the world — approximately 6 million pilgrims annually seeking the miraculous spring water. Bernadette's incorrupt body remains on display in Nevers, France.

Brave as a bear.

The name in its native script.

Bernadette
Transliteration
Bernadette
Pronunciation
/ ˌbɜːr.nəˈdɛt /
Root
Grammatical form

Where Bernadette stands.

Bernadette does not currently appear in the US Social Security Administration's top 1,000 girls' names, so we don't publish a US rank or birth count for it. That says nothing about the name's standing elsewhere in the world — only that it sits outside the ranked US data we rely on.

Bernadettes before her.

Real people
Saint Bernadette of Lourdes
French Catholic visionary.
1844 – 1879
Bernadette Peters
American Broadway actress.
born 1948
In fiction
Bernadette
The Song of Bernadette.
1943 film

Names connected to Bernadette.

The number behind Bernadette.

4

The Builder

In Pythagorean numerology the letters of Bernadette reduce to 4, The Builder. This is a traditional interpretive system, not a factual claim about the name.