By the Numbers: Finding the Bond Girl Ideal

While the James Bond franchise has given the world one of its most iconic characters, it's also delivered a slew of beautiful femme fatales and sexy super spies that add up to a pop culture institution we call the Bond Girl. But after 23 films filled with lovely ladies, what makes the ideal Bond Girl? We ran the numbers, sampling more than 40 Bond Girls (at least one from every film), and this is what we found.


Ideal Name: Silly
Beyond beauty, mystery, sex appeal, and toughness, Bond Girls are known for their names. The early Bond films were famous for giving their characters overtly sexual (sometimes mildly racist) names, like Plenty O'Toole (Diamonds are Forever), Holly Goodhead (Moonraker), Kissy Suzuki (You Only Live Twice), and Pussy Galore of Goldfinger.

In the later years, the Bond franchise shied away from such obvious puns and sexual innuendo, but kept with silly names like Christmas Jones (The World Is Not Enough), Strawberry Fields (Quantum of Solace), May Day (View to a Kill), and the absurdly long Peaceful Fountains of Desire (Die Another Day). In all, nearly a third of the Bond Girls had what you'd consider a silly name. While 32 percent isn't a majority, it does mean one in every three Bond Girls gets tagged with something tongue-in-cheek. Since neither of Skyfall's leading ladies has a ridiculous moniker, that means we can expect one in the next Bond film.
Our Childish Attempt at Potential Bond Girl Names: Maya Noumousbutt, Olive Mighbody, Dawn Keibals

Ideal Hair Color: Brown
Blonde, brown, red, black — James Bond may not discriminate when it comes to the hair color of the women in his life, but he certainly has a type. Nearly half of all Bond Girls are brunette. Daniel Craig must be especially fond of the brown-haired bombshells — four of the five major Bond Girls during Craig's stint as 007 are brunettes — and since he's attached to the next two Bond films, expect the trend to continue.
Candidates Who Fit the Bill: Natalie Portman, Kate Beckinsale, Olivia Wilde, Marion Cotillard, Rachel Weisz

Ideal Height: 5'7"
In the history of the Bond franchise, no Bond Girl has ever been taller than her 007 counterpart. Even Daniel Craig, the shortest Bond of the bunch at 5'10'', is taller than all of his female co-stars (although, it was close with Olga Kurylenko who is only an inch shorter than Craig). If we call the average Bond Girl height the ideal, it's 5-feet, 7-inches. Skyfall's ladies juuuust missed it.
Candidates Who Fit the Bill: Keira Knightley, Katie Cassidy, Zoe Saldana, Victoria Justice, Torian Bellisario



Ideal Nationality: American
As an international man of mystery, James Bond meets ladies from all over the world, and the history of Bond Girls reflects that. Poland, China, Russia, Jamaica, Sweden, Italy, the Philippines, and, of course, 007's homeland, England, are all represented. But by a narrow margin, the most common country of origin for the Bond Girls is the USA. The next most common countries of origin are France and England, which means as a region, Western Europe is more popular than the States.
Candidates Who Fit the Bill: Any hot American actress

Ideal Age: 29
Given the exploitative nature of the early Bond films and the inherent sexism of referring to grown women as "girls," the common assumption might be that Bond Girls are all in their early twenties. Actually, the average age of a Bond Girl is 29. The last Bond Girl hit that average on the nose was Quantum of Solace's Olga Kurylenko.
Candidates Who Fit the Bill: Mila Kunis, Emily Blunt, Kate Bosworth, Melanie Lauren