Bonita

Where Bonita comes from

Bonita hasn't made it into the dictionaries we draw on, and nobody well known enough for an encyclopedia has carried it yet — so for now its story is the one the SSA record tells. Names that spell a familiar sound a new way often live here for a while before anyone writes them down.

  • Vowel-ended
Along the way
  1. 1888
    First appearance
    #1,136 among girls, 6 babies — the first year at least five got the name.
  2. 1923
    Bonita Granville born
    American actress
  3. 1950
    Peak, #181
    1,528 babies named Bonita — more than any year before or since.
  4. 1961
    Bonita Friedericy born
    American actress
  5. 1964
    The fade
    The first year with half the peak's births — down to #368.
In the dictionary

No dictionary entry for this spelling — which is its own kind of rare.

Namesakes
  • Bonita Granville · American actress, 1923–1988
  • Bonita Friedericy · American actress, born 1961
  • Bonita Pietila · Casting director and producer, born 1953
  • Bonita Ely · Australian artist, born 1946
  • Bonita C. Stewart · American marketing and sales executive, born 1957

Sources: the origin note and dictionary entry are quoted from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0); the namesakes come from Wikidata (CC0); the milestones are worked out from the SSA record.