Bentley
From an English surname derived from a place name, meaning "meadow of coarse grass".
Name Census estimates that about 60,752 living Americans carry the first name Bentley. It sits at #201 in the overall ranking, outside the top 50 but still well-represented. It is a predominantly male name (94.5% of registrations). The average person named Bentley today is around 12 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Bentley births was 2012 (6,143 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Bentley. 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 Bentley with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Bentley is a relatively new arrival in the SSA data. The average bearer is just 12 years old, meaning it gained most of its traction in the last two decades.
People living today
61K
~ 1 in 5,642 Americans
Peak year
2012
6,143 babies that year
Average age
12
years old
2024 SSA rank
#201
Tracked since 1890
Census
Bentley in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 42,502 people with the first name Bentley, which placed it at #1,009 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
#1,009
National first-name rank
People counted
43K
42,502 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
14.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
81.2% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Bentley
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Bentley is White at 81.2%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (7.3%) and Two or More Races (5.5%). 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 Bentley 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 Bentley at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White81.2% · 34,511
- Hispanic or Latino7.3% · 3,089
- Two or more races5.5% · 2,323
- Black or African American4.1% · 1,730
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.0% · 430
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.0% · 419
Gender
Gender distribution for Bentley
Bentley leans heavily male at 94.5% of total registrations, but 3,388 girls have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Bentley as a male name
- Ranked #201 in 2024
- 1,776 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2012 (5,895 births)
Bentley as a female name
- Ranked #1,702 in 2024
- 119 female births in 2024
- Peak: 2011 (288 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Bentley leans strongly male. 39,889 people counted with this name were male (93.8%), compared with 2,616 female bearers (6.2%).
Popularity
Bentley: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Bentley from the 1890s through to the 2020s, spanning 13 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 45,883 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 2010s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Bentley 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 Bentley during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Bentleys live
The SSA's state-level files cover 50 states and territories. Texas, Ohio, California recorded the most babies named Bentley, while Hawaii, Rhode Island, Alaska recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 1,160 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Bentley
The name Bentley has its roots in the Old English language, originating from the combination of the words "beonet" meaning "bent grass" and "leah" meaning "meadow" or "clearing." This suggests that the name was initially associated with a geographical location, potentially a meadow or clearing where bent grass grew abundantly. The name can be traced back to the early medieval period in England, around the 7th to 11th centuries.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Bentley appears in the Domesday Book, a comprehensive survey of lands and properties commissioned by William the Conqueror in 1086. The Domesday Book mentions several places with variations of the name, such as "Benetleia" and "Benettlei," indicating the presence of individuals or families bearing the name during that era.
In the 13th century, a Benedictine monk named Nicholas de Bentley was mentioned in the records of Cirencester Abbey in Gloucestershire, England. He is believed to be one of the earliest individuals recorded with the name Bentley as a surname.
Throughout history, there have been several notable individuals with the first name Bentley. One such figure was Bentley Collingwood Woodcroft (1803-1879), an English inventor and engineer who is credited with developing the first successful rotary printing press in the 1830s.
Another prominent figure was Bentley DeForest Rotan (1850-1928), an American jurist and politician who served as a judge in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas from 1891 to 1928.
In the literary world, Bentley Trevor Patrick (1891-1976) was an English writer and editor who worked for the Hogarth Press and was known for his collaborations with Virginia Woolf.
Bentley Kassal (1921-2015) was an American artist and sculptor renowned for his large-scale public artworks, including the iconic sculpture "Les Bourgeois de Calais" in New York City's Manhattan Plaza.
Additionally, Bentley Warren Burkard (1932-2021) was an American businessman and philanthropist who co-founded the Burkard Family Foundation, supporting various charitable causes in education and healthcare.
While the name Bentley has its roots in Old English, it has gained popularity across various cultures and regions over time. However, its origins can be traced back to the meadows and clearings of medieval England, where the name was likely derived from the combination of words describing the natural landscape.
People
Bentley + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Bentley 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
Bentley: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Bentley?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 60,752 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Bentley 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 5,642 US residents.
Is Bentley a common name?
We classify Bentley 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, 61,724 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Bentley most popular?
The single biggest year for Bentley was 2012, when 6,143 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Bentley is about 12 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Bentley in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 42,502 people with the name Bentley, or 14.07 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #1,009 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 Bentley 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 Bentley?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Bentley leans strongly male. 39,889 people counted with this name were male (93.8%), compared with 2,616 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 Bentley?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Bentley is White at 81.2%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (7.3%) and Two or More Races (5.5%). 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 Bentley most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Bentley in the 2020 Census, accounting for 81.2% (34,511 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 Bentley in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Bentley a male name?
Yes, 94.5% of people registered as Bentley 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 Bentley still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Bentley 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 Bentley 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 Americans are named Bentley?
Want to know how many Americans are named Bentley? HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, puts the living-bearer count front and centre.