Ben
given name · Latin script
Meaning: A simple, strong Hebrew name meaning 'son'
Recorded for both men and women· direction only, no split published
/bɛn/(machine-generated) pronunciation, model-generated
Ben is a given name written in the Latin script, with more bearers in the United States than in any other country. In Tunisia it is the 12th most common given name.
- TNTunisia≈1 in 405(inferred from the name graph)
- AUAustralia≈1 in 482
- GBUnited Kingdom≈1 in 697
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)
- #690 (measured from records)
- 4 (measured from records)
- Sources
- 608 (measured from records)
- ≈1 in 405 (inferred from the name graph)
107,539 people, 2020
of 15M given names
recorded for this name
Highest-authority source
Tunisia, 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)
A simple, strong Hebrew name meaning 'son'. While often a nickname for Benjamin or Benedict, it appears as a standalone name in the Bible.
Sources 1
- Biblical Names Compiled Database
Attested across 20 languages in the etymology graph.
Where in the world(measured from records)
Ben 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 | #350 | 107,539 | 1 in 3.1K | 107K | Ben | 608 |
| GB United Kingdom | #130 | ≈94,000 est. | ≈1 in 697 | 40 | Ben | 397 |
| NG Nigeria | #723 | ≈61,000 est. | ≈1 in 3.5K | — | Ben | 103 |
| AU Australia | #93 | ≈53,000 est. | ≈1 in 482 | 93 | Ben | 325 |
| MA Morocco | #173 | ≈39,000 est. | ≈1 in 922 | — | Ben | 125 |
| TN Tunisia | #12 | ≈29,000 est. | ≈1 in 405 | — | Ben | 155 |
| NZ New Zealand | #127 | ≈6,000 est. | ≈1 in 820 | — | Ben | 191 |
107,539 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; NRS — Baby names Scotland full list (1974–present); NSW BDM — Popular baby names (1952–present). 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)
Ben 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.
Derived from the Hebrew root 'banah' meaning 'to build', literally translating to 'son'.
as a nameBiblical Names Compiled Database
The name signifies 'son' or 'builder of the family name'.
as a nameBiblical Names Compiled Database
In German, from Hebrew ben 'son'; common name element
as a nameDeutsche Namenkunde: Unsere Familiennamen nach ihrer Entstehung und Bedeutung
In French, Short form of Benjamin or Benedict/Benoît; Hebrew or Latin origin depending on full name.
as a nameLe grand guide des prénoms (Enfant - Education)
Short form of Benjamin, or less commonly of Benedict or Bennett. Pet forms: Benny, Bennie.
as a nameA concise dictionary of first names
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)
- Ben Jonsonb. 1572GBEnglish playwright, poet, and actor (1572-1637)
- Ben Roy Mottelsonb. 1926USDanish-American nuclear physicist (1926–2022)
- Ben Kingsleyb. 1943GBEnglish actor (born 1943)
- Ben Carsonb. 1951USNeurosurgeon and former United States Secretary of Housing and Urban Development
- Ben Okrib. 1959NGNigerian-born British poet and novelist (1959-)
- Ben Eltonb. 1959GBBritish comedian, author, playwright, actor and director
- Ben Johnsonb. 1961CACanadian sprinter
- Ben Wallaceb. 1970GBBritish politician, UK Defence Secretary (2019–2023)
- Ben Affleckb. 1972USAmerican film actor, director and screenwriter (born 1972)
- Ben Daviesb. 1993GBWelsh association football player (born 1993)
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 137 sources across 69 countries.
| Country | Register | Year | Count | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| US United States | Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2010 | 2010 | 3.4K | #9,596 |
| US United States | Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2020 | 2020 | 3.2K | #9,765 |
| US United States | Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2000 | 2000 | 2.8K | #10,408 |
Reference works 7
- Nederlandse FamilienamenBank (Dutch surname bank; ex-Meertens Instituut, now CBG)2007
- 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
- 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
- Is Ben a male or female name?
- Ben is recorded for both men and women. We don't publish a percentage split: a record's gender belongs to the person and is attached to every given name on that record, so names in cultures where a name string also carries a parent's or spouse's given name pick up large cross-gender counts.
- Where does the name Ben come from?
- A simple, strong Hebrew name meaning 'son'. While often a nickname for Benjamin or Benedict, it appears as a standalone name in the Bible. Recorded by Biblical Names Compiled Database.
- In which country does Ben have the most bearers?
- In the United States, the national register counted about 108 thousand people named Ben, more than in any other country we hold, where it is most often spelled ben.
- What are other forms of the name Ben?
- In the etymology graph, Bernd, Benny and Bennie are forms of the same name in other languages; it is recorded as a short form of Benjamin and Benedikt.
- What does the name Ben mean?
- Recorded meaning: A simple, strong Hebrew name meaning 'son'.
- How common is the name Ben?
- In the United States, the national register counted 107,539 people named Ben in 2020, about 1 in 3.1 thousand residents.
- How common is Ben compared with other names?
- In the United States, Ben is the 350th most common given name of 2,815,431 given names recorded there.
- How do you pronounce Ben?
- A machine transcription gives /bɛn/ (IPA) for English.
What do you want to know about Ben?
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/benThe 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, “Ben” — the 350th most common given name in United States. Data snapshot 2026-10-10.