From old Germanic bear- and power-based elements, giving a traditional sense of 'strong ruler.'
Beric has the feel of deep Scandinavian and Germanic antiquity, and indeed its likely roots lie in the Old Norse and Old High German naming tradition. The suffix '-ric' (also spelled '-rich' or '-rick') derives from the Proto-Germanic 'rīks,' meaning 'ruler,' 'king,' or 'powerful one' — the same root that gives us names like Eric, Alaric, and Theodoric. The 'Ber-' element may connect to Old Norse 'bjǫrn' (bear) or Old High German 'bero,' making Beric potentially 'bear-ruler' — a name redolent of Viking-age might.
R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire series (and the HBO adaptation Game of Thrones). Martin's choice of the name was deliberate, reaching for something that sounded authentically medieval without being immediately familiar, and the character's repeated resurrections gave the name an almost mythological weight around themes of endurance and sacrifice.
Outside fiction, Beric has appeared as a surname in parts of the Balkans and among communities with South Slavic heritage, where it functions as a patronymic form. As a given name in contemporary use, it occupies that appealing space between recognizable and rare — familiar enough to feel grounded in history, uncommon enough to distinguish its bearer. Parents drawn to medieval names without wanting the ubiquity of Eric or Derek often arrive at Beric.