Bennie

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)

Attested across 15 languages in the etymology graph.

Other recorded senses●(measured from records)

Bennie is also recorded in 4 other lexicons, as a different name or as an ordinary word. These are senses of the spelling, not of the name above.

• Abbreviations of Benjamin or Benedict (rare forenames in Scotland) are not found in records. The earliest reference is as a location name from a tiny site above the Perthshire village of Braco, with Hugh de Benne, presumably the landholder, in 1201. The name Benzie, found in Aberdeenshire from the 15th and 16th centuries, may come from a miswriting of Bennie. Benzie, see Bennie Bethune, see Beaton

  as a name·Scottish Surnames

• In English, v. BENNY

  as a name·A Dictionary of English Surnames

• In gmw-ecg, a diminutive of the male given name Benjamin

  as a word·kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)

• In Dutch, contraction of ben niet

  as a word·kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)

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)

• Bennie Motenb. 1894USAmerican musician (1894–1935)
• Bennie Greenb. 1923USAmerican jazz trombonist (1923–1977)
• Bennie Swainb. 1933USAmerican basketball player and trainer (1933–2008)
• Hank Crawfordb. 1934USnot in their usual nameAmerican saxophonist (1934-2009)
• Bennie G. Adkinsb. 1934USUnited States Army Medal of Honor recipient (1934-2020)
• Bennie Mullerb. 1938NLDutch footballer (1938–2024)
• Bennie Maupinb. 1940USAmerican musician
• Bennie Wallaceb. 1946USAmerican saxophonist
• Bennie Thompsonb. 1948USAmerican politician (born 1948)
• Blanco Brownb. 1985USnot in their usual nameAmerican rapper and singer

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)

Register rows as of the 2026-10-09 data build.

Frequently asked questions

Is Bennie a male or female name?

Bennie 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.

What does the name Bennie mean, and where does it come from?

Probably a location name; earliest reference is Hugh de Benne in 1201 from a site above Braco, Perthshire. Recorded by Scottish Surnames.

How do you pronounce Bennie?

A machine transcription gives /ˈbɛni/ (IPA) for English.

What are other forms of the name Bennie?

In the etymology graph, Ben, Benedito and Benny are forms of the same name in other languages; it is recorded as a short form of Benjamin.

In which country does Bennie have the most bearers?

In the United States, the national register counted about 26 thousand people named Benny, more than in any other country we hold.

How common is the name Bennie?

In the Netherlands, the national register counted 1,297 people named Bennie, about 1 in 13 thousand residents.

How common is Bennie compared with other names?

In the United States, Bennie is the 925th most common given name of 2,815,431 given names recorded there.