Benjamin
given name · Latin script
Meaning: from the male personal name Benjamin, from Hebrew Binyamin, literally ‘son of the south’
Recorded as a male name· opposite-gender records fall within measured source noise
/bɛnd͡ʒəmɪn/(machine-generated) pronunciation, model-generated
Benjamin is a given name written in the Latin script, with more bearers in the United States than in any other country. In Ghana it is the 8th most common given name.
- CLChile≈1 in 344(inferred from the name graph)
- GHGhana≈1 in 461
- DKDenmark1 in 471
carrying the name, as counted by its national register where one exists and as Mondonomo estimates it elsewhere (marked ≈ and "est." on hover). One hue, darker where it is more common; hover a country for its figure.
- United States (measured from records)
- #230 (measured from records)
- 2 (measured from records)
- Sources
- 628 (measured from records)
- ≈1 in 344 (inferred from the name graph)
606,324 people, 2020
of 15M given names
recorded for this name
Highest-authority source
Chile, est.
measured from records inferred from the name graph
Spellings & scripts(measured from records)
Spellings marked ● are how people bearing the name write it in our records, and ○ marks a model's transliteration; click a spelling to open its page.
Meaning & origin(measured from records)
from the male personal name Benjamin, from Hebrew Binyamin, literally ‘son of the south’
Sources 1
- Encyclopedia of surnames [the complete companion to tracing your names history]
Attested across 8 languages in the etymology graph.
Where in the world(measured from records)
Benjamin counted together with the spellings and other-language forms grouped with it. Where a register counted another spelling, the row names it.
Sorted by bearers: national registers' counts, and Mondonomo's estimates (≈, est.) where no register counts.
| Country | Most common spelling | Sources | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| US United States | #155 | 606,324 | 1 in 549 | 606K | Benjamin | 628 |
| NG Nigeria | #155 | ≈250,000 est. | ≈1 in 853 | — | Benjamin | 145 |
| PH Philippines | #134 | ≈140,000 est. | ≈1 in 764 | listed | Benjamin | 159 |
| FR France | — | ≈140,000 est. | ≈1 in 491 | 152K | Benjamin | 19 |
| DE Germany | #144 | ≈120,000 est. | ≈1 in 697 | — | Benjamin | 318 |
| GH Ghana | #8 | ≈64,000 est. | ≈1 in 461 | — | Benjamin | 140 |
| CL Chile | #120 | ≈53,000 est. | ≈1 in 344 | 1.9K | Benjamin | 157 |
| FI Finland | — | 13,137 | 1 in 424 | 15K | Benjamin | 62 |
| DK Denmark | #148 | 12,471 | 1 in 471 | 12K | Benjamin | 163 |
606,324 people counted by Census Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex, 2020. Exact figures are national registers' own counts, while figures marked ≈ and est. are Mondonomo’s estimates, counted from our sources and calibrated against those registers; hover one for how far to trust it in that country. A dash means neither exists.
Registers cited: Census Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex; INSEE — Fichier des prénoms (1900–2024); SRCEI — Nombres más comunes (guaguas, 1920–2021); DVV — Etunimitilasto (Finnish given names register); DVV — Nimipalvelu (Finnish name service, per-name lookup); Danmarks Statistik — Hvor mange hedder...? (living-population name counts). Figures without a register are Mondonomo estimates; see Methodology.
Country figures for a list of names, at full precision, are available under licence rather than by scraping this table (how that works).
Other recorded senses(measured from records)
Benjamin is also recorded in 5 other lexicons, as a different name or as an ordinary word. These are senses of the spelling, not of the name above.
The name Benjamin, meaning 'son of the right hand,' is a classic biblical name associated with loyalty and faithfulness. While the most famous Benjamin was the youngest son of Jacob, other figures by this name represent a commitment to faith and community.
as a nameBiblical Names Compiled Database
Benjamin's compliance with Ezra's decree to divorce his foreign wife serves as an example of post-exilic Jewish commitment to covenantal purity and the re-establishment of a distinct religious identity separate from surrounding peoples.
as a nameBiblical Names Compiled Database
The name Benjamin comes from Hebrew and means "son of the right hand." In the Bible, the most famous Benjamin was the youngest of Jacob's twelve sons, and the name is often associated with being a beloved, youngest child.
as a nameBiblical Names Compiled Database
A classic and enduring biblical name, Benjamin means 'son of the right hand' in Hebrew. The name's original bearer was the youngest and beloved son of the patriarch Jacob, symbolizing a cherished child.
as a nameBiblical Names Compiled Database
He represents the 'son of the right hand' (favor/strength) and is often associated with redemption and the unification of the tribes, particularly in the reconciliation between Joseph and his brothers.
as a nameBiblical Names Compiled Database
Ordered by how much of this spelling's record each language holds, so a sense from a language the name is barely used in sits last rather than first.
Notable people with this name(measured from records)
- Benjamin Franklinb. 1706USAmerican polymath and statesman (1706–1790)
- Benjamin Harrisonb. 1833USPresident of the United States, 1889-1893 (1833–1901)
- Benjamin Mkapab. 1938TZTanzanian politician and former president (1938-2020)
- Ben E. Kingb. 1938USnot in their usual nameAmerican singer (1938–2015)
- Benjamin Netanyahub. 1949ILPrime Minister of Israel (born 1949), (1996–1999; 2009–2021; 2022–present)
- Ben Bernankeb. 1953USnot in their usual nameAmerican economist (born 1953)
- Sam Harrisb. 1967USnot in their usual nameAmerican author, philosopher and neuroscientist (born 1967)
- Jake Gyllenhaalb. 1980USnot in their usual nameAmerican actor (born 1980)
- Ben Shapirob. 1984USnot in their usual nameAmerican conservative political commentator
- Benjamin Pavardb. 1996FRFrench footballer (born 1996)
The ten people covered by the most Wikipedia language editions — a proxy for cross-cultural notability, which favours historical and Western figures over equally prominent contemporary ones — shown by birth year. Source: Wikidata (CC0).
How to address them(machine-generated)
A formal English salutation is built on the surname, so it needs a full name — on its own, a first name only supports the informal form.
Evidence(measured from records)
Attested in 182 sources across 93 countries.
| Country | Register | Year | Count | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| US United States | Census Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex | 2020 | 606K | #69 |
| FR France | INSEE — Fichier des prénoms (1900–2024) | 2024 | 152K | #197 |
| FI Finland | DVV — Nimipalvelu (Finnish name service, per-name lookup) | — | 15K | #144 |
| FI Finland | DVV — Etunimitilasto (Finnish given names register) | — | 13K | — |
| DK Denmark | Danmarks Statistik — Hvor mange hedder...? (living-population name counts) | — | 12K | #57 |
| US United States | SSA — National Baby Names (1880–present) | 2025 | 9.8K | — |
| US United States | Census Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex | 2020 | 744 | #69 |
Reference works 9
- Nederlandse FamilienamenBank (Dutch surname bank; ex-Meertens Instituut, now CBG)2007
- Nişanyan Adlar (Turkish given-name national-registry frequency)
- Wikipedia given-name tokens
- Wikipedia surname tokens
- Wikidata name items (native-script + romanized given/family names)
- Rymut, Słownik nazwisk współcześnie w Polsce używanych (10 vols, IJP PAN, Kraków 1992–1994) — every Polish surname in the PESEL register at the end of 1990, with bearer counts nationally and per voivodeship1990
- jeantosti.com — Dictionnaire des noms de famille de France et d'ailleurs (Jean Tosti)
- Ismlar.com — Uzbek given-name dictionary (meanings, gender, origin)
- Ethiopian name tokens (GitHub lehagere/ethiopian-names, 40/60 condominium list)
These works list the name; their figures are licensed and are not reproduced here.
Register rows as of the 2026-10-09 data build.
Frequently asked questions
- What does the name Benjamin mean, and where does it come from?
- from the male personal name Benjamin, from Hebrew Binyamin, literally ‘son of the south’ Recorded by Encyclopedia of surnames [the complete companion to tracing your names history].
- Is Benjamin a male or female name?
- Benjamin is a male name in our records. Opposite-gender entries fall within the cross-gender noise we measure in the source data, so we don't report them as usage.
- What are other forms of the name Benjamin?
- In the etymology graph, Bünyamin, Benjamim and Veniamin are forms of the same name in other languages; Ben, Benny and Bennie are recorded short or pet forms.
- In which country does Benjamin have the most bearers?
- In the United States, the national register counted about 606 thousand people named Benjamin, more than in any other country we hold, where it is most often spelled benjamin.
- How common is the name Benjamin?
- In the United States, the national register counted 606,324 people named Benjamin in 2020, about 1 in 549 residents.
- How common is Benjamin compared with other names?
- In the United States, Benjamin is the 155th most common given name of 2,815,431 given names recorded there.
- How do you pronounce Benjamin?
- A machine transcription gives /bɛnd͡ʒəmɪn/ (IPA) for English.
What do you want to know about Benjamin?
Nobody replies to these one by one, but what readers ask decides what these pages answer next.
Query this name via API
curl -H "X-API-Key: YOUR_KEY" https://api.mondonomo.ai/api/v1/name-graph/benjaminThe payload this page is built from: spellings and scripts, countries and languages, related names, and the registers that attest the form. It takes a free API key (1,000 requests a day), which returns what this page shows everyone; the full country table, every register citation and the year-by-year series come with a licensed key, as does bulk access.
About this data
measured from records inferred from the name graph machine-generated
These figures come from the data snapshot of and will change as it is rebuilt.
Statistics are aggregated from the Mondonomo name corpus; related names and etymology are inferred from the name graph; pronunciation and any machine-marked transliterations are model-generated. Read how the numbers are made, including their known failure modes, and where the data comes from.
Reference works we consult — surname dictionaries, official name registers, Wikidata and Wiktionary — are named directly, beside the claims they support. The per-country source counts also include datasets of person records: we publish how many there are and their authority tier, but not their names.
Cite this page Mondonomo, “Benjamin” — the 155th most common given name in United States. Data snapshot 2026-10-10.