FAMILY NAME HISTORY: 

The French family name Bonnevie is classified as being of nickname origin. Surnames  which are derived from a nickname are said to constitute one of the widest and varied  classes of family names. This particular category encompasses many different types of  origin. The most obvious are those names which are based on a physical characteristic  or personal attribute of the initial bearer. In this particular instance, the surname  Bonnevier was derived from the nickname "Bonnevie", itself composed of the French  words "bonne" (good) and "vie" (life). Hence, the nickname Bonnevie would have  referred originally to one who was thought of as a "bon vivant", a person who knew  and appreciated the finer things that life had to offer. Among the variants of the  surname Bonnevie may be included Bonnevier.

One of the earliest references to this name or to a variant is a record of one  Hillaire Bonnevie, daughter of Claude Bonnevie and Michelle Moisnard, who was born in  1633 at La Vanneau in the department of Deux-Sevres. However, research is of course  ongoing and this name may have been documented even earlier that the date indicated  above. The use of heredetary family names in France dates back as far as the twelfth  century, and had become well-established by the sisteenth century.

Notable bearers of this surname or a variant include the architect Eloy Bonnevier,  who was born in 1835. This name had been introduced to North America by the mid- nineteenth century, as indicated by an entry dated 1 November 1866, regarding the  birth of Anna Sophia Swenson Bonnevie in Omaha, Nebraska. Other descendants settled  in Marseilles and Denmark. One Ida Bonnevie wed Axel Fabian Holmstrom on 8 May 1875  in Chicago. BLAZON OF ARMS: 
 Argent, three bars wavy gules; in chief four fleurs-de-lis of the same.  TRANSLATION: 
 Argent (white/silver) signifies Peace. Gules (red) denotes Magnanimity.   
   
  
 CREST: 
 Three ostrich plumes proper. 
 ORIGIN: 
 FRANCE