Benoist
surname · Latin script
Meaning, in French: a surname, Benoist, variant of Benoît, equivalent to English Benedict
Recorded as a male name· opposite-gender records fall within measured source noise
Benoist is a surname written in the Latin script, with more bearers in France than in any other country.
- FRFrance≈1 in 8.2K(inferred from the name graph)
- NLNetherlands1 in 108K
- CHSwitzerland1 in 131K
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.
- France (inferred from the name graph)
- Sources
- 274 (measured from records)
- ≈1 in 8.2K (inferred from the name graph)
≈8,300 people, est.
Highest-authority source
France, est.
measured from records inferred from the name graph
Meaning & origin(measured from records)
a surname, Benoist, variant of Benoît, equivalent to English Benedict
Sources 1
- kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
How Benoist is read(measured from records)
Benoist is one spelling over 2 language communities, and the dictionaries record it differently in 2 of them. Each row is what a source recorded for that language, beside the share of this name’s records the language holds. No single row is the name’s meaning.
- French80%
a surname, Benoist, variant of Benoît, equivalent to English Benedict
as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
- English16%
A surname from French, equivalent to English Benedict.
as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
The share is ours — how much of this name’s records each language holds. The sense beside it is the source’s, quoted and credited, including where it names a gender. We do not publish a gender of our own per language: our records carry one figure for the spelling as a whole.
Where in the world(measured from records)
Benoist 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 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| FR France | #461 | ≈8,300 est. | ≈1 in 8.2K | 1.1K | Benoist | 274 |
| US United States | — | 742 | 1 in 448K | 742 | Benoist | 126 |
| NL Netherlands | — | 160 | 1 in 108K | 160 | Benoist | 13 |
| IT Italy | — | ≈120 est. | ≈1 in 504K | — | Benoist | 7 |
| GB United Kingdom | — | ≈98 est. | ≈1 in 672K | — | Benoist | 31 |
| CH Switzerland | — | 64 | 1 in 131K | 64 | Benoist | 17 |
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: INSEE — Fichier des prénoms (1900–2024); Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2010; CBG Familienamenbank — Dutch surname bearer counts (GBA/BRP 2007); BFS — Familiennamen der Wohnbevölkerung (surnames). 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).
Notable people with this name(measured from records)
- Michel Benoistb. 1715FRFrench scientist
- Marie-Guillemine Benoistb. 1768FRFrench painter (1768–1826)
- Françoise Benoistb. 1794FRFrench musician (1794–1878)
- Denis Benoist d'Azyb. 1796FRFrench politician (1796–1880)
- Félix Benoistb. 1818FRFrench artist (1818–1896)
- Charles Benoistb. 1861FRFrench politician, journalist and diplomat (1861-1936)
- Robert Benoistb. 1895FRFrench racing driver (1895–1944)
- Jacques Benoist-Méchinb. 1901FRFrench far right politician and writer (1901-1983)
- Daniel Benoistb. 1908FRFrench politician (1908-2004)
- Melissa Benoistb. 1988USAmerican actress 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).
Evidence(measured from records)
Attested in 24 sources across 12 countries.
| Country | Register | Year | Count | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| FR France | INSEE — Fichier des noms de famille (1891–2000) | 1951 | 1.6K | — |
| FR France | INSEE — Fichier des noms de famille (1891–2000) | 1961 | 1.4K | — |
| FR France | INSEE — Fichier des noms de famille (1891–2000) | 1941 | 1.4K | — |
| FR France | INSEE — Fichier des noms de famille (1891–2000) | 1971 | 1.3K | — |
| FR France | INSEE — Fichier des noms de famille (1891–2000) | 1981 | 1.3K | — |
| FR France | INSEE — Fichier des noms de famille (1891–2000) | 1921 | 1.2K | — |
| FR France | INSEE — Fichier des noms de famille (1891–2000) | 1931 | 1.1K | — |
| FR France | INSEE — Fichier des noms de famille (1891–2000) | 1901 | 1.1K | — |
| FR France | INSEE — Fichier des noms de famille (1891–2000) | 1991 | 1.1K | — |
| FR France | INSEE — Fichier des noms de famille (1891–2000) | 1911 | 918 | — |
| US United States | Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2010 | 2010 | 742 | #31,251 |
| US United States | Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2020 | 2020 | 736 | #33,336 |
Reference works 5
- 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)
- jeantosti.com — Dictionnaire des noms de famille de France et d'ailleurs (Jean Tosti)
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 Benoist mean, and where does it come from?
- a surname, Benoist, variant of Benoît, equivalent to English Benedict Recorded by kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations).
- In which country does Benoist have the most bearers?
- Mondonomo estimates about 8.3 thousand people named Benoist in France, more than in any other country we hold, where it is most often spelled benoist.
- How common is the name Benoist?
- In the United States, the national register counted 742 people named Benoist in 2010, about 1 in 448 thousand residents.
- How common is Benoist compared with other names?
- In France, Benoist is the 461st most common surname of 1,200,812 surnames recorded there.
What do you want to know about Benoist?
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/benoistThe 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, “Benoist” — the 461st most common surname in France. Data snapshot 2026-10-10.