Bonnie
Meaning
"pretty, comely"
The story
Bonnie never had to borrow a meaning; it is the compliment itself, the Scots word for pretty or comely, straight from the language of the ballads. My Bonnie Lies over the Ocean carried the word into every American parlor, and Gone with the Wind gave it a beloved child in Bonnie Blue Butler in 1939, just as the name was climbing toward its best years; the timing is hard to ignore. Those best years came at midcentury, in the 1940s and 1950s, after which Bonnie slid gently for four decades to a low ebb around the 1990s and 2000s. Then something turned. The last two decades show the line rising again, part of the wave of sweet vintage revivals, and Bonnie now sounds less like somebody's grandmother and more like the brightest girl in the nursery. Few names have circled back so gracefully.
Popularity, 1890–2024
Shape drawn from US Social Security baby-name records. Bonnie peaked in the 1940s and the 1950s in nearly equal measure.
See popularity in Brazil
Popularity in Brazil
95 people · the #42,809 first name in Brazil · median age 29
Among people named Bonnie living in Brazil at the 2022 census, more were born in the 1980s than in any other decade.
Source: IBGE, Censo Demográfico 2022
When you meet Bonnie
Most people given the name Bonnie in the United States were born between 1940 and 1979. The Bonnie you meet today is most often in her 60s or 70s.
Estimated from US Social Security birth registrations and typical lifespans; a rough guide, not a rule.
The Bonnie deep dive
Whether you’re naming a baby or exploring your own name’s history, this is a personal letter, not a list: where Bonnie truly comes from, how it traveled, and what a century of records reveals. If you have grown a tree on nametree, it also considers how Bonnie fits with your family’s names and surname.
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