- Origin: Italian
- Meaning: “good luck.”
- Gender: Male
Bonaventure is the French and English form of the Medieval Italian male name, Bonaventura. It is ultimately made up of the Latin words, bonus “good” and venturas “the things that will come, the future.” A 13th-century Catholic Saint bore this name. He is considered a Doctor of the Church and known for authoring the biography of St. Francis of Assisi.
The name experienced widespread use throughout Catholic Europe until it fell out of use by the early 20th-century. It was the middle name of actor, Spencer Tracy (1900-1967).
The designated name-day is July 15th and September 11 in Croatia.
In recent years, it was the name of one of the ill-fated Lisbon sisters. This character appeared in Jeffrey Eugenides’ novel, The Virgin Suicides (1993). She is referred to as “Bonnie,” for short.
Other forms include
- Bonabendur (Basque)
- Bonaventura (Catalan, Croatian, Czech, Dutch, German, Hungarian, Italian, Scandinavian, Slovene)
- Boaventura (Galician, Portuguese)
- Buonaventura (Italian)
- Bonaventūra, Bonaventūras (Lithuanian)
- Bonawentura (Polish)
- Buenaventura (Spanish)
Italian short forms are Ventura, Venturo, and Venturino, also used as independent names.
Sources
- https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bonaventure
- https://www.behindthename.com/name/bonaventure
- https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bonaventura
- J. Uckelman, S.L. Uckelman. “Bonaventure”. In S.L. Uckelman, ed. The Dictionary of Medieval Names from European Sources, Edition 2023, no. 1. http://dmnes.org/2023/1/name/Bonaventure
