What is the origin and ethnicity of the surname Bair?

Answer 1

Bair is of Germanic origin but is more specifically an American (Pennsylvania German spelling) of a common Germanic surname. Many Bair families first spelled their name in a variety of ways including Bar (insert 2 umlauts over the 'a'), Baer or Bear. These families commonly came to Pennsylvania from Southern Germany and Northern Switzerland and are heavily associated with the Lutheran faith. Many Lutherans (Evangelisch) left Southern Germany and Northern Switzerland along with many French Heugenots, for Pennsylvania, given the years of brutal religious feuding along what are now the modern Borders Germany and France. The Bair spelling of these surnames became more abundant in the United States after the War of 1812, as it is an anglicized phoenetic equivalent of the previous spellings and the animal "Bear". The Bear was a highly venerated animal in Germanic traditions, dating back to ancient tribal society and therefore the source of many surnames. Note: the heraldic standards of many Germanic places still use the Bear as their symbol, including Bern and Berlin. Also note that the surname Beyer (pronounced the same), simply means Bavarian.