First name content excerpted from The Complete Idiot's Guide to 30,000 Baby Names © 2005 by Marcia Layton Turner. Buy this book online or call 1-800-253-6476.
Last name content copyright © 2006 Patrick Hanks.
Last name origin & meaning:
German and Scandinavian: from the Germanic personal name Bertwald, composed of the elements berht ‘bright’, ‘famous’ + wald ‘rule’. The second element has been altered by association with German hold ‘lovely’, ‘splendid’.