Bern was named after the Bear. These bears are brown bears which are slightly smaller than a Grizzly. Also, the Brown Bear doesn'nt have its own basket ball team as the Grizzlies do. Legend (a legend is an old rumor) has it that the guy who founded Bern didn't know what to name it and decided to name it after the first animal he killed, which happend to be a bear. A lesser known nearby town is named squirrel.