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Boy · Hebrew
Benjamin
Say it: BEN-juh-min
Meaning
Hebrew Binyamin, 'son of the right hand', which can also mean 'son of the south'.
Likelythe main view, with some doubt.
Used by Jewish families and taken up by Protestants after the Reformation.
Its wave through time
Timeless: in steady use for over a century
In the United States
- 776,278 babies given this name since 1880
- At its height in 1981, about 1 in 125 boys
- 12,146 babies in 2020
Through the ages
- The Biblical WorldAbout 1200 BC to AD 100
- The High and Late Middle Ages1100 to 1450
- The Colonial Americas1500 to 1800
- The Age of Revolutions1750 to 1837
- Victorian and Belle Époque1837 to 1914
- The Modern Age1880 to today
Used by
HebrewEarly ChristianEnglishAmericanFrenchSpanishItalianPortugueseGermanPolishRussianArgentineAndeanMexican
The family of the name
Other spellings: Benja
| French | Benjamin |
|---|---|
| Spanish | Benjamín |
| Italian | Beniamino |
| Portuguese | Benjamim |
| German | Benjamin |
| Polish | Beniamin |
| Russian | Veniamin |
| Hebrew | Binyamin |
Famous bearers
- Benjamin, youngest son of Jacob
- Benjamin Franklin, American statesman
Names worth a look
Where this comes from
- The Hebrew Bible and the New Testament
- Puritan church and town records of England and New England
- United States Social Security birth records, 1880 to today source
- National birth statistics of European countries source
- United States Social Security birth records, 1880 to today source
Meanings and histories are compiled from the study of names and their languages and checked by a second review.
Meanings and histories are drawn from the study of names and their languages, each with a confidence rating; popularity figures come from official birth records. Name histories are a living field: if you know of a correction, we would be glad to hear it.