The authors agree that Bernardi derives from the personal name of Germanic origin Bernardo, meaning "brave bear" or "strong, brave as a bear".

E. De Felice describes it as a surname widespread and very frequent throughout Italy in its full form, with maximum points in the regions of Lombardy, Veneto and Emilia. It is peculiar to the Tuscany region and to central Italy —and also to Emilia and Venezia Giulia, where the form Bernic or Bernich is specific— in the abbreviated type Berni. It has as its base the name of Germanic origin Bernardo, established in the 12th and 13th centuries through the prestige and cult of Saint Bernard of Clairvaux, and the apocopated hypocoristic Berna or Berno. Bernardo is the adaptation of the Frankish name Berinhard, formed from the Germanic beran- ("bear") and hardhu- ("hard, strong, brave"), with the original meaning of "brave bear" or "strong, brave as a bear".

F. De Laurentiis agrees in presenting it as a surname widespread and very frequent throughout Italy, with maximum points in the regions of Lombardy, Veneto and Emilia, derived from the Germanic name Bernardo ("brave bear" or "strong, brave as a bear"). He recalls that it was already frequent and documented in Italy from the end of the Early Middle Ages, but became established in the 12th and 13th centuries through the prestige and cult of Saint Bernard of Clairvaux.

P. Canè classifies it as a patronymic or name, derived from Bernhard, "strong as the bear".