The story in the numbers

327,883 girls have been named Bonnie in the United States since 1880, according to Social Security records. The busiest single year was 1947, with 10,215 births — 0.58% of all girls recorded that year.

It is rising: its share of births is at least one and a half times what it was ten years ago (rank 867 → 441).

Half of everyone given the name was born by 1950, and the 1940s alone account for 26%. It has spent 134 of 145 years in the top 1,000, 40 of them in the top 100.

It is overwhelmingly a girl’s name: 4,037 boys have also been given it, 1.2% of the total.

Rank among girls, year by year

By decade

Decade

girls named Bonnie

401

1,343

2,496

8,335

23,172

35,802

86,886

83,011

45,088

16,674

12,099

4,421

2,059

3,112

2,984

In 1947, its biggest year

Bonnie was the 35th most given girl’s name that year. The top five girls’ names of 1947 were Linda, Mary, Patricia, Barbara and Sandra. See all of 1947.

Names that rose and fell with Bonnie

Same sex, most similar popularity curve over 145 years, in five-year steps — the shape of the line, not the size.

Other spellings in the data

What this page does not tell you. The Social Security data records how many babies were given a name, not what the name means or where it comes from — so neither do we. Counts cover people with a Social Security number; names given to fewer than five babies in a year are withheld. More on the data.