Bonnie
Pronunciation
BON -ee Gender Primarily female Word/name
Scottish Meaning
Pretty ,
Attractive ,
Beautiful ,
Good Related names
Bona , Bonaccorso,
Bonaparte ,
Bonaventura ,
Bonaventure ,
Boniface ,
Bonilla ,
Bonita ,
Bonney , Bonni, Bonnibel, Bonny
Bonnie is a
Scottish given name and is sometimes used as a descriptive reference, as in the Scottish folk song,
My Bonnie Lies over the Ocean . It comes from the
Scots language word "bonnie" (pretty, attractive), or the
French
bonne (good). That is in turn derived from the Latin word "bonus" (
good ). The name can also be used as a pet form of
Bonita .
Usage
The name has been in use, primarily in the
Anglosphere , since the 1800s. It has been ranked among the 50 most popular names for newborn girls in the
United Kingdom since 2020 and had been rising in popularity for British girls since the 1990s. It was among the 1,000 most used names for newborn girls in the
United States between 1880 and 2003, reaching the height of popularity between 1928 and 1966, when it was ranked among the 100 most popular names for newborn American girls. It was also ranked among the 1,000 most popular names for newborn American boys between 1884 and 1953. The name then declined in popularity but has again risen in usage for girls in the United States in recent years and has been ranked among the 1,000 most popular names for newborn girls there since 2014. It has also been among the top 100 names for girls in
Australia since 2014, in
New Zealand since 2021, and in
Sweden since 2019. In
Canada , the name was among the 100 most popular names for girls between 1940 and 1973, but has since declined in usage.
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Spelling variants in use include
Bonney , Bonni and Bonny. Elaborations of the name such as Bonnibel are also used. Other related names, also containing the word element bon , meaning good or
attractive in various languages, include the
Italian
Bona and the
Spanish
Bonita . Some related given names or surnames include Bonaccorso,
Bonaparte ,
Bonaventura ,
Boniface ,
Bonilla , and
Bueno .
The increase in usage of the name coincides with its use for characters in movie and television productions. It was the nickname used for Bonnie Blue Butler, the young daughter of
Rhett Butler and
Scarlett O’Hara in
Margaret Mitchell ’s 1935 novel
Gone with the Wind and its 1939
film adaptation , because the child's eyes were said to be “as blue as the
bonnie blue flag .” The name gained some notoriety via bank robbers
Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow and the 1967 film
Bonnie and Clyde made about the couple. The name was later used for
Bonnie Bennett , a character in the television series
The Vampire Diaries , which aired from 2009 to 2017, and for
Bonnie Anderson , the toddler who inherits
Andy's toys, in the
2010 film
Toy Story 3 and the 2019 sequel
Toy Story 4 .
[2]
[3]
[4]
People named Bonnie
Women
Faye Dunaway as
Bonnie Parker in the 1967 film
Bonnie and Clyde .
Bonnie August (1947–2003), American fashion designer
Bonnie Bartlett (born 1929), American actress
Bipasha Basu (born 1979), Indian actress, sometimes informally referred to as Bonnie
Bonnie Bedelia (born 1948), American actress
Bonnie Bernstein (born 1970), American sportscaster
Bonnie Bianco (born 1963), American singer and actress
Bonnie Bramlett (born 1944), American singer and sometime actress
Bonnie Crombie (born 1960), Canadian politician, formerly Member of the Canadian Parliament
Bonnie Curtis (born 1966), American film producer
Bonnie Dasse (born 1959), retired American track and field athlete
Bonnie Devine (born 1952), Indigenous Canadian artist
Bonnie Dobson (born 1940), Canadian folk music songwriter, singer, and guitarist
Bonnie Dunbar (born 1949), retired American astronaut
Bonnie Franklin (1944–2013), American actress
Bonnie Fuller (born 1956), Canadian media executive
Bonnie Gadusek (born 1963), retired American professional tennis player
Bonnie Garland (died 1977), American murder victim
Bonnie Garmus (born 1957), American author
Bonnie Gold (born 1948), American mathematician
Bonnie Greer (born 1948), American-British playwright, novelist and critic
Bonnie Urquhart Gruenberg (born 1963), American photographer, author, artist, and certified nurse-midwife
Bonnie Guitar (1923–2019), American country-pop singer
Bonnie Henry (born 1965/66), Provincial Health Officer for
British Columbia
Bonnie Hunt (born 1961), American comedian, actress, director, producer, writer, host, and voice artist
Bonnie Koloc (born 1946), American folk music singer-songwriter, actress, and artist
Bonnie Langford (born 1964), British actress, dancer and entertainer
Bonnie Lee (1931–2006), American Chicago blues singer
Bonnie Loo (born 1994), Singapore-based Malaysian singer-songwriter and actress
Bonnie Lou (1924–2015), American rock and roll and country music singer
Bonnie Lythgoe (born 1949), former British dancer, theatre producer and director
Bonnie MacBird (born 1951), American actress, playwright, screenwriter and producer
Bonnie Mathieson (1945–2018), American scientist
Bonnie McFarlane (born 1973), Canadian stand-up comedian and writer
Bonnie McKee (born 1984), award-winning American singer, songwriter, and actress
Bonnie Mealing (1912–2002), Australian freestyle and backstroke swimmer
Bonnie Milligan , American musical theater performer and television actor
Bonnie Owens (1929–2006), American country music singer
Bonnie Parker (1910–1934), American gangster (Bonnie and Clyde)
Bonnie Pink (born 1973), Japanese singer, songwriter, and musician
Bonnie Poe (1912–1993), American actress
Bonnie Pointer (1950–2020), American R&B and disco singer (of
The Pointer Sisters )
Bonnie Raitt (born 1949), American blues singer-songwriter and slide guitar player
Bonnie Rideout (born 1962), award-winning Scottish fiddler
Bonnie Schneider , American television meteorologist and author
Bonnie Shemie (born 1949), American-Canadian author and illustrator
Bonnie Sherr Klein (born 1941), Canadian feminist filmmaker, author and disability rights activist
Bonnie Sherk (1945–2021), American artist
Bonnie Somerville (born 1974), American actress and singer
Bonnie Tyler (born 1951), Welsh singer
Bonnie Wright (born 1991), British actress, fashion model, screenwriter, director and producer
Bonnie Zacherle (born 1946), American designer, creator of
My Little Pony toy line
Men
Surname
Robert Bonnie , Under Secretary of Agriculture for Farm Production and Conservation
Fictional characters
Bonnie Green, a character in
The Wolves of Willoughby Chase .
Bonnie, a character in
Pokémon The Series: XY
Bonnie, a character from
The Walking Dead video games 'and television series
Bonnie, a character in the television series
Who's the Boss?
Bonnie, a character in the video game
Brawl Stars
Bonnie Anderson , in
Toy Story
Bonnie Black, a character in the comic book
Reborn
Bonnie Brindle, a character in the sitcom
Small Wonder
Bonnie Castle, Original Sin, played by Angelina Joile
Bonnie Malloy, the main character of the television series
Life with Bonnie
Bonnie McCullough, a character in the book series,
The Vampire Diaries
Bonnie McMurray, a reoccurring character on the Canadian television sitcom
Letterkenny
Bonnie Bennett , from the television series The Vampire Diaries
Bonnie Rockwaller, the self-proclaimed "mean girl" on the animated series
Kim Possible
Bonnie Butler, in
Gone with the Wind
Bonnie MacFarlane, a major character in
Red Dead Redemption
Bonnie Plunkett, main character in CBS sitcom
Mom
Bonnie Simpson, a character in 1989 American independent coming of age comedy movie
She's Out of Control
Bonnie Swanson , from the animated series Family Guy
Bonnie the Bunny, a character in
Five Nights at Freddy's
Bonnie Watkins, a casual character who was Roseanne's coworker on the First Edition of the sitcom
Roseanne
Bonnie Winterbottom , a character in the TV series How to Get Away with Murder
Bonnie from doll line and animated series
Cry Babies
Bonnie Lisbon, the middle sister in
The Virgin Suicides
Bonnie, a character who is
Finn Mertens ' daughter in pillow world in the TV series Adventure Time
Bonnie, what is
Princess Bubblegum 's nickname in the animated television series Adventure Time
See also
Notes