Benno
A Germanic masculine name derived from "bene", meaning "bear".
Name Census estimates that about 143 living Americans carry the first name Benno. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Benno today is around 31 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Benno births was 1916 (12 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Benno. 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
143
~ 1 in 2,396,883 Americans
Peak year
1916
12 babies that year
Average age
31
years old
2024 SSA rank
#11,081
Tracked since 1912
Census
Benno in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 348 people with the first name Benno, which placed it at #26,649 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
#26,649
National first-name rank
People counted
348
348 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
88.2% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Benno
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Benno is White at 88.2%. The next largest groups are Asian/Pacific Islander (3.7%) and Hispanic (2.6%). 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 Benno 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 Benno at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White88.2% · 307
- Asian and Pacific Islander3.7% · 13
- Hispanic or Latino2.6% · 9
- Black or African American2.3% · 8
- Two or more races2.3% · 8
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.9% · 3
Popularity
Benno: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Benno from the 1910s through to the 2020s, spanning 9 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1920s, with 65 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 1920s peak, Benno remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Benno 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 Benno during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Bennos live
Origin
Meaning and history of Benno
The given name Benno has its origins in the Germanic languages, derived from the Old High German words "bern" or "baro", meaning "bear", and the diminutive suffix "-no". It was a popular name among the Alemannic and Bavarian regions of present-day Germany during the Middle Ages.
The earliest recorded use of the name Benno dates back to the 7th century, when it was mentioned in the Franconian legal codes known as the Lex Salica. It gained prominence in the 11th century with Saint Benno, the Bishop of Meissen, who lived from around 1010 to 1106 and was known for his piety and commitment to church reforms.
In the 12th century, the name Benno was associated with Benno II, the Duke of Saxony, who reigned from 1139 to 1191. He was a prominent figure in the conflict between the Guelphs and the Ghibellines, supporting the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick Barbarossa against the papal forces.
Another notable figure with the name Benno was Benno Achenbach, a German landscape painter born in 1831 and known for his realistic depictions of the Black Forest region. His works were highly influential in the development of the Düsseldorf school of painting.
In the 20th century, Benno Gutenberg, a German-American seismologist born in 1889, made significant contributions to the understanding of the Earth's interior structure and the study of earthquakes. He is best known for his development of the Richter scale for measuring the magnitude of seismic events.
The name Benno can also be found in various literary works, such as the German novel "Das Erdbeben in Chili" (The Earthquake in Chile) by Heinrich von Kleist, published in 1807, where a character named Benno appears as a young nobleman.
While the name Benno has its roots in Germanic languages, it has been adopted in various cultures and regions over time, reflecting its enduring appeal and historical significance.
People
Benno + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Benno 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
Benno: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Benno?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 143 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Benno 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 2,396,883 US residents.
Is Benno a common name?
We classify Benno as "Very Rare". It ranks above 69.6% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 297 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Benno most popular?
The single biggest year for Benno was 1916, when 12 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Benno is about 31 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Benno in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 348 people with the name Benno, or 0.12 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #26,649 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 Benno 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 Benno?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Benno appears almost entirely male. Of the 341 people counted with this name, 100.0% 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 Benno?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Benno is White at 88.2%. The next largest groups are Asian/Pacific Islander (3.7%) and Hispanic (2.6%). 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 Benno most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Benno in the 2020 Census, accounting for 88.2% (307 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 Benno in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Benno a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Benno 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 Benno still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Benno 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 Benno 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 Benno?
HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, answers that with the living-bearer count in one glance.