Bengamin
Son of the right hand (or southern); fortunate.
Name Census estimates that about 24 living Americans carry the first name Bengamin. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Bengamin today is around 38 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Bengamin births was 1922 (7 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Bengamin. 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 Bengamin. It is among the rarest names in the SSA records.
People living today
24
~ 1 in 14,281,431 Americans
Peak year
1922
7 babies that year
Average age
38
years old
2002 SSA rank
#8,550
Tracked since 1922
Census
Bengamin in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 231 people with the first name Bengamin, which placed it at #35,041 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
#35,041
National first-name rank
People counted
231
231 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
50.2% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Bengamin
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Bengamin is White at 50.2%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (37.7%) and Black (6.9%). 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 Bengamin 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 Bengamin at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White50.2% · 116
- Hispanic or Latino37.7% · 87
- Black or African American6.9% · 16
- Asian and Pacific Islander3.5% · 8
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.9% · 2
- Two or more races0.9% · 2
Popularity
Bengamin: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Bengamin from the 1920s through to the 2000s, spanning 6 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1920s, with 18 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 1920s peak, Bengamin remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Bengamin 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 Bengamin 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 Bengamin
The name Bengamin has its roots in the ancient Hebrew language, originating around the 1st century BC. It is derived from the Hebrew words "ben" meaning "son" and "yamin" meaning "right hand." The name can be interpreted as "son of the right hand" or "son of the south," since the right hand was associated with the south in ancient Semitic cultures.
The earliest recorded use of the name Bengamin dates back to the biblical figure Benjamin, one of the twelve sons of the Hebrew patriarch Jacob. In the Book of Genesis, Benjamin is described as the youngest son and the only one born in Canaan. The tribe of Benjamin, one of the twelve tribes of Israel, descended from him.
Throughout the centuries, the name Bengamin has been associated with various notable figures. In the 1st century AD, Bengamin was the name of a Jewish writer and philosopher from Judea. In the 12th century, Bengamin of Tudela was a renowned Spanish Jewish traveler and explorer who documented his travels across Europe and the Middle East.
During the Renaissance period, the name was used by several artists and scholars. Bengamin Jonson (c. 1572-1637) was an English playwright and poet, considered one of the leading literary figures of the Jacobean era. Bengamin Franklin (1706-1790), a Founding Father of the United States, was a renowned polymath known for his contributions to science, philosophy, and politics.
In the 19th century, Bengamin Disraeli (1804-1881) was a British statesman and literary figure who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. Bengamin Silliman (1779-1864) was an American chemist and mineralogist who made significant contributions to the field of science education.
The name Bengamin has also been adopted by various literary and artistic figures in more recent times, such as Bengamin Britten (1913-1976), an English composer, and Bengamin Zephaniah (born 1958), a British writer and dub poet.
People
Bengamin + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Bengamin 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
Bengamin: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Bengamin?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 24 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Bengamin 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 14,281,431 US residents.
Is Bengamin a common name?
We classify Bengamin as "Very Rare". It ranks above 43% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 46 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Bengamin most popular?
The single biggest year for Bengamin was 1922, when 7 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Bengamin is about 38 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Bengamin in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 231 people with the name Bengamin, or 0.08 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #35,041 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 Bengamin 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 Bengamin?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Bengamin appears almost entirely male. Of the 234 people counted with this name, 99.1% 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 Bengamin?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Bengamin is White at 50.2%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (37.7%) and Black (6.9%). 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 Bengamin most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Bengamin in the 2020 Census, accounting for 50.2% (116 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 Bengamin in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Bengamin a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Bengamin 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 Bengamin still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Bengamin 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 Bengamin 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 common is the name Bengamin?
For a quick modern take, check how many Americans are named Bengamin on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org.