Veniamin
A masculine name of Greek origin meaning "son of the right hand".
Name Census estimates that about 88 living Americans carry the first name Veniamin. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Veniamin today is around 23 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Veniamin births was 1999 (14 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Veniamin. 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.
Key insights
- • Fewer than 100 living Americans are believed to carry the name Veniamin. It is among the rarest names in the SSA records.
People living today
88
~ 1 in 3,894,936 Americans
Peak year
1999
14 babies that year
Average age
23
years old
2023 SSA rank
#14,040
Tracked since 1997
Census
Veniamin in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 722 people with the first name Veniamin, which placed it at #15,811 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
#15,811
National first-name rank
People counted
722
722 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.2
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
99.0% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Veniamin
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Veniamin is White at 99.0%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (0.7%) and Hispanic (0.1%). 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 Veniamin 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 Veniamin at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White99.0% · 715
- Two or more races0.7% · 5
- Hispanic or Latino0.1% · 1
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.1% · 1
Popularity
Veniamin: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Veniamin from the 1990s through to the 2020s, spanning 3 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 54 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 2000s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Veniamin 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 Veniamin during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Veniamins live
Origin
Meaning and history of Veniamin
The name Veniamin has its origins in the Hebrew language and culture, tracing back to ancient times. It is derived from the Hebrew name "Binyamin," which means "son of the right hand" or "son of the south." This name was borne by one of the twelve sons of Jacob in the biblical Book of Genesis.
In the context of the Bible, Binyamin was the youngest son of Jacob and Rachel, and the progenitor of one of the twelve tribes of Israel. The tribe of Benjamin played a significant role in the history of ancient Israel, and the name Veniamin has been associated with this tribe throughout the ages.
The name Veniamin appeared in various ancient texts and religious scriptures, including the Hebrew Bible, the Septuagint (the Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible), and the New Testament. It was also found in early Christian writings, as some early Christian saints bore this name.
One of the earliest recorded examples of the name Veniamin was Saint Veniamin of Petropavlovsk (1768-1831), a Russian Orthodox monk and missionary who helped spread Christianity in Alaska and the Aleutian Islands. Another notable figure was Veniamin Maslennikov (1833-1907), a Russian composer and music teacher.
In the Byzantine Empire, Veniamin I (c. 1340-1416) was a prominent Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople from 1393 to 1416. He played a crucial role in the theological disputes of his time and in the establishment of the Orthodox Church in Russia.
Moving forward in history, Veniamin Kaverin (1902-1989) was a renowned Russian writer and literary critic, best known for his novels "The Two Captains" and "The Scandalist." Veniamin Yerofeyev (1938-1990) was another influential Russian writer and journalist, whose satirical works critiqued the Soviet system.
Finally, Veniamin Kondratiev (1888-1956) was a Russian economist and theorist who developed the theory of long-term economic cycles, known as the "Kondratiev waves" or "Kondratiev cycles." His work had a significant impact on the field of economics and the study of economic fluctuations.
People
Veniamin + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Veniamin as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with V
Other first names starting with V with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Veniamin: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Veniamin?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 88 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Veniamin 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 3,894,936 US residents.
Is Veniamin a common name?
We classify Veniamin as "Very Rare". It ranks above 62.7% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 89 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Veniamin most popular?
The single biggest year for Veniamin was 1999, when 14 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Veniamin is about 23 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Veniamin in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 722 people with the name Veniamin, or 0.24 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #15,811 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 Veniamin 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 Veniamin?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Veniamin appears almost entirely male. Of the 726 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 Veniamin?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Veniamin is White at 99.0%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (0.7%) and Hispanic (0.1%). 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 Veniamin most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Veniamin in the 2020 Census, accounting for 99.0% (715 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 Veniamin in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Veniamin a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Veniamin 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 Veniamin still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Veniamin 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 Veniamin 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 are named Veniamin?
See how many people have the name Veniamin on HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site built around that single question.