From French debonnaire, meaning courteous, charming, and refined.
Debonair comes from French debonnaire, meaning courteous, charming, and refined. As a word, it has long suggested suave manners and elegant social ease, which gives it an immediately polished character.
The movement from adjective to given name is unusual but not unprecedented, especially in English naming culture where appealing words sometimes become personal names. Because of that origin, Debonair feels stylish rather than traditional, more a personality statement than a family heirloom. It has a decidedly confident air, almost theatrical in its smoothness, and that makes it memorable. Names like this tend to function as ideals as much as labels, and Debonair clearly belongs to that category: gracious, poised, and knowingly distinctive.