BERNEY. The baronet's family are asserted to have been seated at Berney, near Walsingham, co. Norfolk, at the time of the Norman Conquest — a great improbability, although their -'cry early settlement there cannot be questioned. Bernays is of distinct origin, being a recent importation from Germany; it is supposed that the latter family were originally Frencli, and that they derived their designation from the town of Bernay, in the department of the Eure, in Normandy.

Lower, Mark A (1860) Patronymica Britannica: a dictionary of the family names of the United Kingdom. London: J.R. Smith. Public Domain.