Beniamin
Derived from Hebrew meaning "son of the right hand".
Name Census estimates that about 32 living Americans carry the first name Beniamin. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Beniamin today is around 26 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Beniamin births was 2006 (9 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Beniamin. 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.
For a British comparison, Name Census UK has a UK baby-name profile for Beniamin with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Fewer than 100 living Americans are believed to carry the name Beniamin. It is among the rarest names in the SSA records.
People living today
32
~ 1 in 10,711,073 Americans
Peak year
2006
9 babies that year
Average age
26
years old
2006 SSA rank
#8,069
Tracked since 1994
Census
Beniamin in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 400 people with the first name Beniamin, which placed it at #24,171 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
#24,171
National first-name rank
People counted
400
400 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
93.5% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Beniamin
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Beniamin is White at 93.5%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (4.3%) and Two or More Races (1.3%). 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 Beniamin 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 Beniamin at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White93.5% · 374
- Hispanic or Latino4.3% · 17
- Two or more races1.3% · 5
- Black or African American0.5% · 2
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.5% · 2
Popularity
Beniamin: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Beniamin from the 1990s through to the 2000s, spanning 2 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1990s, with 18 total registrations. The name continues to be given at rates close to its all-time high, suggesting it has not yet fallen out of fashion.
Babies born per year
Decades
Beniamin 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 Beniamin 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 Beniamin
The name Beniamin is derived from the Hebrew name Binyamin, which means "son of the right hand" or "son of the south." It is a biblical name that originates from the Book of Genesis, where Binyamin is one of the twelve sons of Jacob and the founder of one of the twelve tribes of Israel.
The name Beniamin can be traced back to ancient Hebrew and Jewish culture, with its earliest known usage dating back to around the 18th century BC. The Hebrew spelling of the name is ???????????????, which is transliterated as "Bin'yamin" or "Binyamin."
In the Bible, Binyamin is the youngest son of Jacob and Rachel, and his birth is described in Genesis 35:16-20. The name is given to him by his mother Rachel, who names him "Ben-Oni" (son of my sorrow) as she dies in childbirth. However, Jacob renames him Binyamin (son of the right hand).
One of the earliest recorded examples of the name Beniamin can be found in the Book of Judges, where Beniamin is mentioned as one of the twelve tribes of Israel. The tribe of Beniamin was known for its bravery and skill in warfare.
Throughout history, several notable figures have borne the name Beniamin:
1. Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790), an American polymath, scientist, inventor, statesman, and one of the Founding Fathers of the United States.
2. Benjamin Disraeli (1804-1881), a British politician and writer who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1868 to 1876.
3. Benjamin Britten (1913-1976), an English composer, conductor, and pianist who was a central figure in 20th-century classical music.
4. Benjamin Zephaniah (born 1958), a British writer, dub poet, and Rastafarian activist.
5. Benjamin Netanyahu (born 1949), an Israeli politician who has served as the Prime Minister of Israel since 2009.
While the name Beniamin has Hebrew origins, it has been used across various cultures and ethnicities throughout history, with variations in spelling and pronunciation. The name continues to be popular in many parts of the world, carrying with it a rich cultural and biblical heritage.
People
Beniamin + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Beniamin 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
Beniamin: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Beniamin?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 32 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Beniamin 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 10,711,073 US residents.
Is Beniamin a common name?
We classify Beniamin as "Very Rare". It ranks above 47.5% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 33 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Beniamin most popular?
The single biggest year for Beniamin was 2006, when 9 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Beniamin is about 26 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Beniamin in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 400 people with the name Beniamin, or 0.13 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #24,171 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 Beniamin 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 Beniamin?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Beniamin leans strongly male. 407 people counted with this name were male (98.5%), compared with 6 female bearers (1.5%). 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 Beniamin?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Beniamin is White at 93.5%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (4.3%) and Two or More Races (1.3%). 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 Beniamin most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Beniamin in the 2020 Census, accounting for 93.5% (374 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 Beniamin in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Beniamin a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Beniamin 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 Beniamin still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Beniamin 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 Beniamin 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 have the name Beniamin?
Find out how many Americans are named Beniamin on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org — a quick modern estimate with the living-bearer count front and centre.