Family name origins & meanings
- French : from the medieval personal name Bonettus, a diminutive of Latin bonus ‘good’.
- French : occasionally, a Gascon variant of Bonneau.
- English and French : metonymic occupational name for a milliner, or a nickname for a wearer of unusual headgear, from Middle English bonet, Old French bon(n)et ‘bonnet’, ‘hat’. This word is found in medieval Latin as abonnis, but is of unknown origin.
- In Germany the name was borne by Waldensians, of French origin.
- A Bonnet from the Charente region of France is documented in Montreal in 1670 with the secondary surname Lafortune.