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 or Bonnie Dundee about John Graham, 7th Laird of Claverhouse. It comes from the Scots language word "bonnie" (handsome, 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.
 Clark Gable as Rhett Butler and Cammie King as Bonnie Blue Butler in a scene from the 1939 popular film Gone with the Wind | |
| Pronunciation | /ˈbɒni/ BON-ee |
|---|---|
| Gender | Primarily female |
| Origin | |
| Word/name | Scottish |
| Meaning | Pretty, Attractive, Beautiful, Good |
| Other names | |
| Related names | Bona, Bonaccorso, Bonaparte, Bonaventura, Bonaventure, Boniface, Bonilla, Bonita, Bonney, Bonni, Bonnibel, Bonny |
Usage
editThe 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.[1]
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
editWomen
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- 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
edit- Bonnie Stewart (1914–1994), American professor of mathematics
- Bonnie 'Prince' Billy (born 1970), stage name for Will Oldham
- Bonnie Prince Charlie (1720–1788), also known as Prince Charles Edward Stuart
Surname
edit- Joe Bonnie, Irish drummer
- Robert Bonnie, Under Secretary of Agriculture for Farm Production and Conservation
Fictional characters
edit- 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
editNotes
edit- ^ Campbell, Mike. "The name Bonnie". Behind the Name.
- ^ "Bonnie". nameberry.com. Retrieved 24 March 2023.
- ^ Sandel, Abby (27 June 2013). "Bonnie: Baby Name of the Day". appellationmountain.net. Appellation Mountain (blog). Retrieved 24 March 2023.
- ^ Bennett, Gabrielle. "Baby Names Inspired by Pixar Movies". The Bump.
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