Behnam
A masculine Persian name meaning "good-natured" or "benevolent".
Name Census estimates that about 33 living Americans carry the first name Behnam. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Behnam today is around 31 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Behnam births was 1984 (6 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Behnam. Below you will find a gender breakdown showing how the name splits between male and female registrations, a year-by-year popularity chart stretching back to 1880, decade-level totals, the top US states for this name, its meaning and etymology, and a set of frequently asked questions with data-backed answers.
Key insights
- • Fewer than 100 living Americans are believed to carry the name Behnam. It is among the rarest names in the SSA records.
People living today
33
~ 1 in 10,386,495 Americans
Peak year
1984
6 babies that year
Average age
31
years old
2018 SSA rank
#12,385
Tracked since 1982
Census
Behnam in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 734 people with the first name Behnam, which placed it at #15,622 in the published first-name tables. This is a snapshot of people who already had the name at the time of the Census.
The SSA sections elsewhere on this page answer a different question: how often parents gave the name to babies over time. The "people living today" figure on this page is different again: it is a current estimate built from SSA birth records and age-based survival rates, so the two numbers are not expected to match exactly.
2020 Census rank
#15,622
National first-name rank
People counted
734
734 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.2
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
87.6% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Behnam
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Behnam is White at 87.6%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (9.9%) and Hispanic (1.2%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself.
The bar chart below shows how people with the first name Behnam described their own race and ethnicity on the 2020 Census form. The Census Bureau groups responses into six broad categories: White, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Asian and Pacific Islander, American Indian and Alaska Native, and Two or More Races. When a category has too few respondents for a given name, the Bureau suppresses the figure to protect individual privacy, which is why some names show fewer than six slices.
Percentages are shown so the breakdown is easy to read across every published category. Because the 2020 Census first-name file also includes raw headcounts for each group, Name Census can show those alongside the percentages in the legend and hover tooltip.
Keep in mind that these are self-reported numbers. A first name does not determine a person's race or ethnicity, and the distribution you see here reflects the specific population who happened to carry the name Behnam at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White87.6% · 643
- Two or more races9.9% · 73
- Hispanic or Latino1.2% · 9
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.8% · 6
- Black or African American0.4% · 3
Popularity
Behnam: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Behnam from the 1980s through to the 2010s, spanning 2 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1980s, with 23 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 1980s peak, Behnam remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Behnam by decade
The table below breaks the full SSA timeline into ten-year windows. Each row shows how many male and female babies were given the name Behnam during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Origin
Meaning and history of Behnam
The name Behnam is of Persian origin and has its roots in the ancient Iranian language of Pahlavi. It is derived from the words "beh" meaning good or well, and "nam" meaning name or reputation. Thus, the name Behnam can be translated to mean "one with a good name" or "one with a good reputation."
The earliest known usage of the name Behnam dates back to the Sassanid Empire, which ruled over ancient Persia from the 3rd to the 7th century AD. During this period, the name was likely used among the nobility and the upper classes of Persian society.
One of the earliest recorded mentions of the name Behnam can be found in the Shahnameh, the epic Persian poem written by the renowned poet Ferdowsi in the late 10th century. In this work, Behnam is mentioned as the name of a character, though little is known about the historical significance of this particular reference.
Throughout the centuries, the name Behnam has been borne by several notable figures in Persian and Middle Eastern history. One of the most famous was Behnam Jamaleddini, a 13th-century Persian poet and philosopher who was renowned for his works on Sufism and mysticism. He was born in 1207 AD in the city of Qazvin and passed away in 1284 AD.
Another historical figure with the name Behnam was Behnam Khan, a prominent military commander and governor during the Safavid Empire in the 16th century. He served under Shah Tahmasp I and played a crucial role in the empire's campaigns against the Ottoman Turks.
In the 19th century, Behnam Maleki was a renowned Iranian painter and calligrapher who was celebrated for his intricate and beautiful works of art. He was born in 1825 in the city of Isfahan and passed away in 1892.
Behnam Bakhtiari was a prominent Iranian politician and diplomat who served as the Prime Minister of Iran from 1917 to 1918. He was born in 1883 and played a significant role in the country's political landscape during the early 20th century.
Behnam Petrossian was an Armenian-Iranian football player who played as a striker for the Iranian national team in the 1960s and 1970s. He was born in 1944 and is considered one of the greatest Iranian footballers of all time.
People
Behnam + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Behnam as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with B
Other first names starting with B with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Behnam: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Behnam?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 33 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Behnam going back to 1880 and adjusting each cohort for expected survival using CDC actuarial life tables. The result is an age-weighted living-bearer count, not a raw birth total. That works out to about 1 in 10,386,495 US residents.
Is Behnam a common name?
We classify Behnam as "Very Rare". It ranks above 48% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 34 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Behnam most popular?
The single biggest year for Behnam was 1984, when 6 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Behnam is about 31 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Behnam in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 734 people with the name Behnam, or 0.24 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #15,622 in the national Census ranking for first names.
Why is the Census count different from the living estimate?
Because they measure different things. The Census figure is a count of people who had the name Behnam in 2020. The living estimate aims to answer a current question instead: how many people with the name are alive today, based on SSA birth records and age-based survival rates. Since one number is a 2020 snapshot and the other is a present-day estimate, they are not expected to be identical.
What does the Census say about the gender split for Behnam?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Behnam appears almost entirely male. Of the 741 people counted with this name, 100.0% were male and only a very small share were female. The Census view is a snapshot of people living with the name in 2020, while the SSA section above tracks births across time.
What does the Census say about the background of people named Behnam?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Behnam is White at 87.6%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (9.9%) and Hispanic (1.2%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself. The percentages in the chart above come from self-reported race and Hispanic-origin responses in the 2020 Census.
Which group reports the name Behnam most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Behnam in the 2020 Census, accounting for 87.6% (643 people in the published table).
Why can the Census sex total and race total differ slightly?
The Census Bureau published separate 2020 tables for sex and for race/Hispanic origin, and the released figures can differ slightly because of privacy protection in the public files. That is why this page treats the gender section and the race/origin section as two related snapshots instead of forcing them into one identical total.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only includes names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files have no Census demographic snapshot. When that happens, the SSA trend, gender history, and state sections still appear, but the 2020 Census demographic sections are omitted.
What does the SSA popularity chart show?
The chart tracks births, not the number of people alive with the name today. Each point shows how many babies were given the name Behnam in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Behnam a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Behnam in the SSA data are male. You can see the full per-sex comparison in the gender distribution section above, which includes the latest year rank, birth count, and peak year for each sex.
Is Behnam still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Behnam in 2024, and the page above shows its latest-year rank where available. A name can be well past its peak and still remain in steady use, especially if it built up a large population over earlier decades.
Why can a name have a lot of living bearers even if it is not trendy now?
Because living-bearer counts and current baby-name popularity measure different things. A name like Behnam can build up a very large population over many decades, even if fewer parents are choosing it now than they did at its peak.
Where does this data come from?
First-name figures come from the Social Security Administration's national baby name files, which cover every name on a birth certificate from 1880 to 2024. Living-bearer estimates layer in CDC actuarial life tables broken out by sex to account for mortality. The population baseline (342,754,338) is the Census Bureau's latest national estimate. You can read the full calculation on our methodology page.
How many people are named Behnam?
Want to know how many people have the name Behnam? HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, puts the living-bearer count front and centre.