Bonna
Feminine · “good”
Bonna is the Latin word for good, in its feminine form, and it is also one letter from a Scots word and two from a French one. American families using it in the early twentieth century had all three available and left no note about which they meant. The Latin one has the better story attached.
How old is the name Bonna?
Bonna first appears in US birth records in 1914 — 111 years ago. The typical Bonna alive today was born around 1938, making them about 87 years old. About 500 people named Bonna are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Bonna most popular?
Bonna peaked in 1928, reaching #1163 nationally. See the whole 1928 chart.
Where it comes from
From Latin bona, the feminine of the word for good to Bonna
The story of Bonna
The Romans had a goddess whose name was simply the Good Goddess, and her December rites were held in the house of a senior magistrate, conducted by his wife, with every male living thing — men, boys, and reportedly even male animals and pictures of men — removed from the building first. In the winter of 62 BC a young patrician called Clodius got in dressed as a woman, allegedly to reach Caesar's wife. The scandal produced a trial, a bribed jury, an acquittal that nobody believed, and a divorce; Caesar declined to give evidence against Clodius and divorced his wife anyway, saying that his household must be above suspicion. The phrase survives, and so does the rest of the story.
Meaningscholars disagree
good
The Latin adjective is as plain as a word can be, and it turns up in dozens of European names and place names. Two other routes are open: the Scots word for pretty, which came from French and produced Bonnie, and a shortening of Bonita or Bonnibel. The doubled n points slightly towards the Scots line and the final a slightly towards the Latin one, which is exactly the kind of evidence that settles nothing. The name is in the record from the 1910s and no reference work carries it.
How the name formed
- Latin bona, the feminine of the word for good
- the Good Goddess and her rites in republican Rome
- Scots bonnie arrives from French by another road
- Bonna appears in American records in the 1910s
- peaks between the wars and fades
Related forms: Bona · Bona · Bonnie · Bonita
Pronouncing Bonna
BON-uh
Two syllables, stress at the front, first vowel as in on. The doubled consonant is doing its usual English job of keeping that vowel short.
Nicknames for Bonna
Moderate
What the data says
146 years of official birth records
The long climb, and where it stands now
The same years in position rather than babies
- First recorded
- 1914
- Most girls named
- 192843 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1163reached in 1928
- Change vs 1971
- 0.0%5 in 1981, from 5
Rank is a position, a count is a headcount, and they move independently — a name can hold its rank while the number of babies behind it falls. Source: U.S. Social Security Administration.
Bonna in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Bona in Latin — spelling variant
- Bona in Italian — same name
- Bonnie in English — related form
- Bonita in Spanish — related form
Bonnas among us
people named Bonna are estimated to be alive in the US today
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
Questions parents actually ask
Fashion outlook
Bonna sits outside the current charts, and that is its own kind of answer: naming cycles can only date the names they carried up. A name this rare has no decade stamped on it — it cannot go out of fashion, because it was never in.
Based on 146 years of naming cycles. How we read them
The trade-off
- It is short, warm and impossible to mispronounce in any language that uses this alphabet.
- The meaning is as plain and as favorable as a meaning can be.
- Bonnie sits inside it as a ready-made short form with a life of its own.
- It will be heard as Donna, Bonnie and Bona by people meeting it for the first time.
- The Latin reading is a guess rather than a documented origin.
- It belongs to the first half of the last century and has had no revival.
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Bonna
Feminine
Frequently asked
- How many Bonnas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 500 people named Bonna are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Bonna in 2025?
- Bonna is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 girl names.
- Will my child share the name Bonna with classmates?
- Bonna will almost certainly be the only one in school.
More B names
The most-given names starting with B, all years combined.
Barbara#968 · Betty#1113 · Brenda#1525 · Beverly#1016 · Brittany#928 · Bonnie#396 · Brianna#222 · Bertha#4546
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Bonna? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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