Bonnie
Feminine · “pretty”
Bonnie is overwhelmingly a girls’ name — 328,675 girls against 4,037 boys since 1880. See Bonnie as a boy name
Bonnie is a Scots adjective that got up and walked off as a name. It means good-looking, and Scotland has used it as a description for centuries. What made it an American name was a novel: the child in Gone with the Wind is christened Eugenie Victoria and called Bonnie by everybody, and the country picked up the habit.
How old is the name Bonnie?
Bonnie was already in use when US birth records began in 1880 — it is at least 145 years old. The typical Bonnie alive today was born around 1951, making them about 74 years old. About 215,000 people named Bonnie are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Bonnie most popular?
Bonnie peaked in 1941, reaching #33 nationally. Today it ranks #396, 363 places below that high. See the whole 1941 chart.
Where it comes from
From bon to Bonnie
The story of Bonnie
Margaret Mitchell's novel appeared in 1936, and in it Rhett Butler's daughter is given a formal name nobody uses and a nickname everybody does. Within a few years American girls were being christened Bonnie outright, with no formal name behind it, which is the reverse of how the name works in Scotland. There it has usually been a way of addressing a Bonita, an Elizabeth or a Marion rather than a name on its own; in America it went straight onto the certificate. The word itself is older than either use, borrowed into Scots from French, and it has stayed in the language while the name has come and gone.
Meaning
pretty, fine, good-looking
The Scots word, still in everyday use in Scotland, where a bonnie day and a bonnie lass are ordinary phrases rather than quaint ones.
How the name formed
- bon
- bonnie
- Bonnie
Related forms: Bonita · Bonne
Pronouncing Bonnie
BON-ee
Two syllables, weight at the front, the first with the vowel of on. Said the same way in Scotland, America and England, which is rare.
Nicknames for Bonnie
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
- 1880
- Most girls named
- 19489,817 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #33reached in 1941
- Change vs 2022
- +32.6%785 in 2025, from 592
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.
Bonnie in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Bonita in Spanish — related form
- Bonne in French — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: Texas, California, Tennessee. International figures from Office for National Statistics, National Records of Scotland. Sources
Bonnies among us
people named Bonnie are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 2,047 born in 2025 was named Bonnie
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Pauline test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Bonnie's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Pauline climbed just as high around 1915, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Pauline's path sketches the road Bonnie is walking now.
Bonnie is on its second act. Revived names age gently: the generation that wore them first is far enough away that the name feels classic rather than dated.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Where Bonnie is headed
Bonnie looks set to keep climbing gently, with roughly 17% more babies a year by 2030 if the current curve holds.
Medium confidence — fitted on official counts through 2025.
A damped-trend projection of the official birth data — a sketch of momentum, not a promise. Every name's forecast, ranked.
Bonnie beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Bonnie in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- It is spelled as it sounds and needs no explanation in any English-speaking country.
- It also charts in England, Wales and Scotland, so it travels without becoming strange.
- It works as a full name and as a nickname for Bonita or Yvonne, which gives a family two ways to use it.
- The word behind it is still living Scots rather than a dead root, so the meaning can be shown rather than explained.
- It is closely tied to one novel and one film for anyone over a certain age.
- The spelling is recorded for a small number of boys, though it reads overwhelmingly as a girl's name.
- Bonnie and Clyde is the other association, and it is not going anywhere.
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What they receive
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Bonnie
Feminine · #396 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Bonnies are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 215,000 people named Bonnie are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Bonnie in 2025?
- Bonnie ranks #396 among US girl names in 2025, with 785 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Bonnie?
- About 1 in every 2,047 US girls born in 2025 was named Bonnie — 785 in all.
- Will my child share the name Bonnie with classmates?
- Bonnie will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Bonnie
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Murphy#397 · Regina#395 · Melany#398 · Julianna#398 · Danna#394 · Jocelyn#393 · Kaliyah#392 · Briar#400
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Bonnie? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Bonnie and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration; international figures from national statistics agencies. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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