Benjy
A diminutive of the masculine name Benjamin of Hebrew origin, meaning "son of the right hand".
Name Census estimates that about 309 living Americans carry the first name Benjy. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Benjy today is around 52 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Benjy births was 1974 (29 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Benjy. 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 Benjy with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
309
~ 1 in 1,109,237 Americans
Peak year
1974
29 babies that year
Average age
52
years old
2021 SSA rank
#12,382
Tracked since 1936
Census
Benjy in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 343 people with the first name Benjy, which placed it at #26,904 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
#26,904
National first-name rank
People counted
343
343 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
55.4% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Benjy
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Benjy is White at 55.4%. The next largest groups are Black (23.6%) and Hispanic (14.0%). 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 Benjy 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 Benjy at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White55.4% · 190
- Black or African American23.6% · 81
- Hispanic or Latino14.0% · 48
- Asian and Pacific Islander4.1% · 14
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.5% · 5
- Two or more races1.5% · 5
Popularity
Benjy: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Benjy from the 1930s through to the 2020s, spanning 7 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1970s, with 153 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
Benjy 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 Benjy during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Benjys live
Origin
Meaning and history of Benjy
The name Benjy is a diminutive form of the Hebrew name Benjamin, which means "son of the right hand" or "son of the south." The name has its origins in ancient Hebrew culture and can be traced back to the biblical figure Benjamin, one of the twelve sons of Jacob in the Book of Genesis.
In the biblical narrative, Benjamin was the youngest son of Jacob and Rachel, and his birth was marked by tragedy as Rachel died while giving birth to him. The tribe of Benjamin, one of the twelve tribes of Israel, descended from this biblical figure.
The earliest recorded usage of the name Benjamin can be found in the Hebrew Bible, where it appears numerous times, particularly in the Book of Genesis and the Book of Judges. However, the diminutive form Benjy is a more recent development, likely emerging in the English-speaking world as a nickname or pet name for Benjamin.
Throughout history, there have been several notable individuals who bore the name Benjamin or its diminutive form Benjy. One of the most famous was Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790), a Founding Father of the United States, renowned for his contributions to science, politics, and literature.
Another notable Benjamin was Benjamin Disraeli (1804-1881), a British statesman and novelist who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom in the late 19th century. In the realm of literature, Benjamin Britten (1913-1976) was a renowned British composer and conductor, known for his operas and orchestral works.
In the modern era, Benjy is perhaps best known as the nickname of Benjamin "Benjy" Ferree (1938-2018), an American professional golfer who won numerous tournaments on the PGA Tour in the 1960s and 1970s.
Additionally, Benjy Travis (born 1981) is an American actor and musician who has appeared in films and television shows, and Benjy Bronk (born 1977) is a radio personality and writer best known for his work on the Howard Stern Show.
People
Benjy + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Benjy 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
Benjy: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Benjy?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 309 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Benjy 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 1,109,237 US residents.
Is Benjy a common name?
We classify Benjy as "Very Rare". It ranks above 79.5% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 354 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Benjy most popular?
The single biggest year for Benjy was 1974, when 29 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Benjy is about 52 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Benjy in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 343 people with the name Benjy, or 0.11 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #26,904 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 Benjy 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 Benjy?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Benjy leans strongly male. 319 people counted with this name were male (93.8%), compared with 21 female bearers (6.2%). 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 Benjy?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Benjy is White at 55.4%. The next largest groups are Black (23.6%) and Hispanic (14.0%). 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 Benjy most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Benjy in the 2020 Census, accounting for 55.4% (190 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 Benjy in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Benjy a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Benjy 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 Benjy still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Benjy 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 Benjy 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 share the name Benjy?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.