Benton
From an English surname meaning "bent grass meadow" or "hay meadow".
Name Census estimates that about 7,589 living Americans carry the first name Benton. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Benton today is around 31 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Benton births was 2016 (277 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Benton. 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 Benton with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
7.6K
~ 1 in 45,165 Americans
Peak year
2016
277 babies that year
Average age
31
years old
2024 SSA rank
#1,305
Tracked since 1880
Census
Benton in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 6,551 people with the first name Benton, which placed it at #3,256 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
#3,256
National first-name rank
People counted
6.6K
6,551 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
2.2
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
85.3% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Benton
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Benton is White at 85.3%. The next largest groups are Black (5.1%) and Two or More Races (3.9%). 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 Benton 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 Benton at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White85.3% · 5,590
- Black or African American5.1% · 334
- Two or more races3.9% · 258
- Asian and Pacific Islander2.5% · 164
- Hispanic or Latino2.3% · 152
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.8% · 53
Gender
Gender distribution for Benton
Out of the 10,316 babies given the name Benton since 1880, 99.9% were registered as male. The name sits firmly on the male side of the spectrum, with only a handful of female registrations across the entire dataset.
Benton as a male name
- Ranked #1,305 in 2024
- 149 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2016 (277 births)
Benton as a female name
- Ranked #14,062 in 2018
- 6 female births in 2018
- Peak: 2018 (6 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Benton appears almost entirely male. Of the 6,548 people counted with this name, 99.0% were male and only a very small share were female.
Popularity
Benton: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Benton 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 2,229 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Benton remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Benton 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 Benton during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Bentons live
The SSA's state-level files cover 33 states and territories. Texas, Tennessee, California recorded the most babies named Benton, while Montana, Maryland, Nebraska recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 137 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Benton
The name Benton has its origins in Old English and Old French. It is derived from the Old English words "bene" meaning "prayer" or "request" and "tun" meaning "enclosure" or "settlement". The name likely referred to a settlement or village where people gathered for prayer or religious observances.
The earliest recorded use of the name Benton can be traced back to the 12th century in England. It was initially used as a surname, referring to someone from a particular settlement or village. Over time, it transitioned into a given name as well.
In the late 13th century, a Benedictine monk named Benton de Morleye was mentioned in the historical records of the Abbey of Bury St. Edmunds in Suffolk, England. This is one of the earliest known references to the name Benton.
During the Middle Ages, the name Benton appeared in various religious texts and chronicles, often associated with members of the clergy or monastic orders. It was particularly popular among the Benedictine monks, who played a significant role in the preservation of knowledge and literature during this period.
One notable figure in history with the name Benton was Sir Benton de Lisle, a 14th-century English knight who fought in the Hundred Years' War. He was born around 1320 and served under King Edward III.
In the 16th century, Benton Fletcher (1535-1607) was an English theologian and writer who authored several religious works, including "The Sinne Against the Holy Ghost" and "A Treatise of the Auncient and Moderne Use of Armories".
Another prominent individual with the name Benton was Thomas Hart Benton (1782-1858), an American politician and lawyer who served as a United States Senator from Missouri. He was a prominent figure in the Democratic Party and played a significant role in the westward expansion of the United States.
In the 19th century, Thomas Hart Benton's son, Thomas Hart Benton (1889-1975), became a renowned American painter and muralist. He was a key figure in the Regionalist art movement and is best known for his depictions of everyday life in the American Midwest.
Benton MacKaye (1879-1975) was an American forester, conservationist, and regional planner. He is credited with conceiving the idea of the Appalachian Trail, a long-distance hiking trail that stretches from Georgia to Maine in the United States.
People
Benton + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Benton 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
Benton: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Benton?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 7,589 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Benton 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 45,165 US residents.
Is Benton a common name?
We classify Benton as "Rare". It ranks above 97.3% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 10,316 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Benton most popular?
The single biggest year for Benton was 2016, when 277 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Benton 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 Benton in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 6,551 people with the name Benton, or 2.17 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #3,256 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 Benton 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 Benton?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Benton appears almost entirely male. Of the 6,548 people counted with this name, 99.0% 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 Benton?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Benton is White at 85.3%. The next largest groups are Black (5.1%) and Two or More Races (3.9%). 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 Benton most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Benton in the 2020 Census, accounting for 85.3% (5,590 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 Benton in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Benton a male name?
Yes, 99.9% of people registered as Benton 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 Benton still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Benton 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 Benton 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 Benton?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.