The story
* As a Dutch and German surname, from the personal name Bern, a variant of Bernd. * As a Latvian surname, shortened from the personal name Bernards, Bernard. * As an Irish surname, from Ó Broin, see Byrne. * As an English, Scottish and Irish surname, variant of Burns. * Also as an English surname, variant of Barnes.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.