Benford
A masculine name of English origin, potentially derived from a place name.
Name Census estimates that about 148 living Americans carry the first name Benford. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Benford today is around 71 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Benford births was 1927 (12 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Benford. 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
- • The typical person named Benford is about 71 years old today, placing it firmly among the names of earlier generations. Most living Benfords were born before 1965.
People living today
148
~ 1 in 2,315,908 Americans
Peak year
1927
12 babies that year
Average age
71
years old
1988 SSA rank
#7,391
Tracked since 1915
Census
Benford in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 200 people with the first name Benford, which placed it at #38,397 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
#38,397
National first-name rank
People counted
200
200 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
55.5% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Benford
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Benford is White at 55.5%. The next largest groups are Black (37.0%) and Two or More Races (4.0%). 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 Benford 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 Benford at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White55.5% · 111
- Black or African American37.0% · 74
- Two or more races4.0% · 8
- American Indian and Alaska Native2.5% · 5
- Hispanic or Latino0.5% · 1
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.5% · 1
Popularity
Benford: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Benford from the 1910s through to the 1980s, spanning 8 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1920s, with 80 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1920s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Benford 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 Benford during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Benfords live
Origin
Meaning and history of Benford
The name Benford is believed to have its origins in Old English, derived from the elements "bene" meaning "prayer" or "request" and "ford" meaning "a shallow place where a river can be crossed." This suggests that the name may have originally referred to a place where people gathered to pray or make requests, perhaps near a ford or shallow river crossing.
In the early medieval period, the name Benford was found primarily in areas of England that were heavily influenced by Anglo-Saxon culture, such as the regions of Mercia and Northumbria. There are records of individuals with the name Benford appearing in various historical documents from the 9th to 11th centuries.
One of the earliest recorded individuals with the name Benford was a monk named Beneford, who lived in the 9th century and is mentioned in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle for his contributions to the monastery at Lindisfarne. Another notable figure was Benford the Scribe, a 10th-century calligrapher and illuminator of manuscripts at the Benedictine abbey in Bury St Edmunds.
During the Norman Conquest of England in the 11th century, the name Benford gained some prominence among the nobility. Sir Benford de Warenne, a Norman knight who fought alongside William the Conqueror at the Battle of Hastings in 1066, is recorded as receiving lands in Sussex for his service.
In the 13th century, a Franciscan friar named Benford of Cambridge gained recognition for his scholarly works on theology and philosophy. He is believed to have been born around 1210 and died in 1285.
Another significant figure was Benford Chaucer, a 14th-century poet and son of the renowned author Geoffrey Chaucer. Benford Chaucer was born circa 1370 and is known for his contributions to the literary tradition of his father's works.
During the Renaissance period, a German humanist scholar and mathematician named Benford Regiomontanus (born Johann Müller in 1436) made significant contributions to the fields of astronomy and trigonometry. He is credited with producing some of the first printed astronomical tables and for his work on the calculation of planetary positions.
These are just a few examples of individuals throughout history who bore the name Benford, demonstrating its long-standing presence and varied contexts across different eras and cultures.
People
Benford + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Benford 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
Benford: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Benford?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 148 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Benford 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 2,315,908 US residents.
Is Benford a common name?
We classify Benford as "Very Rare". It ranks above 70.1% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 366 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Benford most popular?
The single biggest year for Benford was 1927, when 12 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Benford is about 71 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Benford in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 200 people with the name Benford, or 0.07 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #38,397 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 Benford 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 Benford?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Benford leans strongly male. 200 people counted with this name were male (98.0%), compared with 4 female bearers (2.0%). 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 Benford?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Benford is White at 55.5%. The next largest groups are Black (37.0%) and Two or More Races (4.0%). 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 Benford most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Benford in the 2020 Census, accounting for 55.5% (111 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 Benford in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Benford a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Benford 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 Benford still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Benford 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 Benford 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 Benford?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.