Bengie
A diminutive variant of the Spanish masculine name Benjamin.
Name Census estimates that about 138 living Americans carry the first name Bengie. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Bengie today is around 56 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Bengie births was 1975 (18 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Bengie. 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.
People living today
138
~ 1 in 2,483,727 Americans
Peak year
1975
18 babies that year
Average age
56
years old
2005 SSA rank
#11,665
Tracked since 1956
Census
Bengie in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 232 people with the first name Bengie, which placed it at #34,960 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
#34,960
National first-name rank
People counted
232
232 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
34.9% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Bengie
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Bengie is White at 34.9%. The next largest groups are Black (27.6%) and Hispanic (25.4%). 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 Bengie 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 Bengie at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White34.9% · 81
- Black or African American27.6% · 64
- Hispanic or Latino25.4% · 59
- Asian and Pacific Islander9.1% · 21
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.7% · 4
- Two or more races1.3% · 3
Popularity
Bengie: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Bengie from the 1950s through to the 2000s, spanning 4 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1970s, with 77 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1970s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Bengie 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 Bengie 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 Bengie
The given name Bengie is believed to have its origins in the Old German language, dating back to the 8th century AD. The name is thought to be derived from the Old German word "beng," which means "to strike" or "to beat." This likely refers to a warrior or soldier who was skilled in combat.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Bengie can be found in the Annals of Fulda, a medieval chronicle written in the 9th century. The text mentions a warrior named Bengie who fought alongside the Frankish king Charlemagne during his military campaigns.
In the 11th century, the name Bengie appeared in the Domesday Book, a comprehensive record of landowners in England commissioned by William the Conqueror. This suggests that the name had spread from its Germanic origins to other parts of Europe by that time.
During the Middle Ages, the name Bengie was particularly popular in Germanic regions, including modern-day Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. One notable figure from this period was Bengie von Rothenburg (1195-1272), a German knight and military leader who fought in the Crusades.
In the 16th century, a Dutch explorer named Bengie van Heutsz (1501-1567) gained fame for his voyages to the East Indies and his interactions with indigenous peoples in the region.
Another historical figure with the name Bengie was the German composer Bengie Beethoven (1712-1773), who was the grandfather of the renowned Ludwig van Beethoven.
During the 18th century, a Swiss mathematician named Bengie Euler (1707-1783) made significant contributions to the fields of calculus, number theory, and mechanics.
In the 19th century, an Austrian politician named Bengie Metternich (1773-1859) served as the Chancellor of the Austrian Empire and played a pivotal role in the Congress of Vienna, which redrew the map of Europe after the Napoleonic Wars.
While the name Bengie has fallen out of common usage in modern times, it remains an intriguing part of historical records, spanning various cultures and time periods.
People
Bengie + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Bengie 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
Bengie: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Bengie?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 138 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Bengie 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 2,483,727 US residents.
Is Bengie a common name?
We classify Bengie as "Very Rare". It ranks above 69.1% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 156 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Bengie most popular?
The single biggest year for Bengie was 1975, when 18 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Bengie is about 56 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Bengie in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 232 people with the name Bengie, or 0.08 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #34,960 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 Bengie 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 Bengie?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Bengie leans strongly male. 190 people counted with this name were male (83.7%), compared with 37 female bearers (16.3%). 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 Bengie?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Bengie is White at 34.9%. The next largest groups are Black (27.6%) and Hispanic (25.4%). 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 Bengie most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Bengie in the 2020 Census, accounting for 34.9% (81 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 Bengie in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Bengie a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Bengie 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 Bengie still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Bengie 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 Bengie 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 Bengie?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.