If you described a baby as Bonny what would you mean?

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If someone described a baby as Bonny, what would it mean to you?

Bonny means beautiful. I’ve not heard the chubby connotations before

Chunky/chubby, but healthy with it.

I never knew it meant chubby. I thought it meant healthy and happy - a sunny disposition.

https://www.oed.com/dictionary/bonny_adj

The OED is really interesting on this. Lots of uses of the word, with its link to "plumpness" going back a very long way.

It's like the phrase "you look well". Can be taken many ways.

DH was involved in running a newspaper Bonnie Babies contest many years ago.

It involved submission of the baby's photo and name, then voting rounds by phone and online until a final winner was selected.

He had to deal with more cheating, violence, threats and police involvement than any other competition ever run, even though the prize was only a baby photoshoot. One set of people were changing their IP address repeatedly to get multiple votes. The newspaper was threatened with prosecution many times.

So Bonny definitely means beautiful, but apparently can also mean;
your parents are unhinged about you being more beautiful than others;
they have landed you with a baby name so awful you should be removed for your own safety (I saw some of the names and they were so unbelievably bad. Strings of random words, often spelled incorrectly, I felt sorry for the babies!)

As a Geordie it meant pretty to me - bonny bairn, bonny lass. Maybe with an occasional connotation of a wee bit cheeky - “divvn’t start, bonny lad.”

Turns out it means something different down South - when an idiotic health visitor told me my gorgeous, month old, exclusively breast-fed baby was “really bonny” I smiled and said thank you. Turns out she meant she was fat and told me I was over feeding her! Cheeky mare.

I’m still cross about that, and said bonny baby is now (typical Mumsnet) tall skinny teenager!

Thanks, I thought this was said about a friends baby and then I had 2 day it yesterday about my DS. Assumed it meant chubby!
doe not expect so many replies and reassured that most people se it as a good thing. I think he’s gorgeous, huge yes but not obese 😂 Just has perfect chubby cheeks!
Thanks all. You cheered me up this morning