The city of Bern or Berne is the Bundesstadt of Switzerland, and, with a population of 137'919,is the fifth most populous city in Switzerland. The Bern agglomeration, which includes 43 municipalities,[5] has a population of 356,000. The metropolitan area had a population of 660,000 in 2000.Bern is also the capital of the Canton of Bern, the second most populous of Switzerland's cantons.
The etymology of the name Bern is uncertain. According to the local legend, based on folk etymology, Berchtold V, Duke of Zähringen, the founder of the city of Bern, vowed to name the city after the first animal he met on the hunt, and this turned out to be a bear. It has long been considered likely that the city was named after the Italian city of Verona, which at the time was known as Bern in Middle High German.