Bennett
A masculine name derived from the Old French term for "blessed".
Name Census estimates that about 63,621 living Americans carry the first name Bennett. It sits at #60 in the overall ranking, outside the top 50 but still well-represented. It is a predominantly male name (97.0% of registrations). The average person named Bennett today is around 15 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Bennett births was 2024 (5,329 babies). In terms of living bearers, it sits close to Alana (63,370).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Bennett. 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 Bennett with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Although Bennett is used almost entirely for boys, the SSA data does show 2,050 girls registered with the name since 1880.
- • Bennett is a relatively new arrival in the SSA data. The average bearer is just 15 years old, meaning it gained most of its traction in the last two decades.
People living today
64K
~ 1 in 5,387 Americans
Peak year
2024
5,329 babies that year
Average age
15
years old
2024 SSA rank
#60
Tracked since 1880
Census
Bennett in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 41,300 people with the first name Bennett, which placed it at #1,023 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
#1,023
National first-name rank
People counted
41K
41,300 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
13.7
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
85.8% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Bennett
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Bennett is White at 85.8%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (4.7%) and Two or More Races (4.7%). 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 Bennett 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 Bennett at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White85.8% · 35,431
- Hispanic or Latino4.7% · 1,956
- Two or more races4.7% · 1,922
- Black or African American2.3% · 947
- Asian and Pacific Islander2.0% · 838
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.5% · 206
Gender
Gender distribution for Bennett
Bennett leans heavily male at 97.0% of total registrations, but 2,050 girls have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Bennett as a male name
- Ranked #60 in 2024
- 5,095 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2024 (5,095 births)
Bennett as a female name
- Ranked #1,060 in 2024
- 234 female births in 2024
- Peak: 2024 (234 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Bennett leans strongly male. 39,897 people counted with this name were male (96.6%), compared with 1,405 female bearers (3.4%).
Popularity
Bennett: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Bennett from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 15 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 25,803 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
Bennett 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 Bennett during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Bennetts live
The SSA's state-level files cover 51 states and territories. California, Texas, Illinois recorded the most babies named Bennett, while Vermont, Wyoming, New Mexico recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 1,206 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Bennett
The name Bennett has its origins in medieval England and France, derived from the Latin name Benedictus, meaning "blessed". It was originally a surname given to those associated with the Benedictine order of monks, or those living near a Benedictine monastery.
The name can be traced back to the 6th century, when St. Benedict of Nursia founded the Benedictine monastic order, and the name Benedictus became popular among his followers. Over time, it evolved into various forms, such as Benet, Benet, and eventually Bennett.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Bennett is in the Domesday Book of 1086, which was a survey of land ownership in England commissioned by William the Conqueror. Several individuals with the name Bennett or its variations are listed in this historical document.
Throughout the Middle Ages, the name was relatively common among the English and French nobility, as well as among the clergy. One notable figure bearing this name was William Bennett, a 13th-century English scholar and theologian who served as Archbishop of Rouen from 1246 to 1249.
In the 16th century, the name gained popularity during the Protestant Reformation, as many parents chose to name their children after prominent Reformers. One such example is Richard Bennett (1510-1571), an English Puritan minister and author who was a vocal critic of the Catholic Church.
In the 17th century, we find the name associated with the English Civil War. Samuel Bennett (1619-1686) was a Puritan minister and writer who supported the Parliamentarian cause during the conflict.
Moving into the 18th century, James Gordon Bennett (1795-1872) was an influential Scottish-American journalist and publisher who founded the New York Herald newspaper, which played a significant role in shaping American journalism.
In the 19th century, we encounter James Gordon Bennett Jr. (1841-1918), the son of the aforementioned James Gordon Bennett, who took over the New York Herald and continued his father's legacy in journalism. Another notable figure from this period was John Bennett (1812-1897), an American artist and sculptor known for his works depicting Native American subjects.
Notable bearers
Famous people named Bennett
People
Bennett + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Bennett 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
Bennett: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Bennett?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 63,621 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Bennett 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 5,387 US residents.
Is Bennett a common name?
We classify Bennett as "Uncommon". It ranks above 99.3% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 68,275 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Bennett most popular?
The single biggest year for Bennett was 2024, when 5,329 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Bennett is about 15 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Bennett in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 41,300 people with the name Bennett, or 13.67 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #1,023 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 Bennett 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 Bennett?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Bennett leans strongly male. 39,897 people counted with this name were male (96.6%), compared with 1,405 female bearers (3.4%). 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 Bennett?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Bennett is White at 85.8%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (4.7%) and Two or More Races (4.7%). 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 Bennett most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Bennett in the 2020 Census, accounting for 85.8% (35,431 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 Bennett in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Bennett a male name?
Yes, 97.0% of people registered as Bennett 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 Bennett still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Bennett 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 Bennett 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 Bennett?
HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, answers that with the living-bearer count in one glance.