Benno

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Boy · Old High German

Benno

Say it: BEN-oh

Try it with your surname

Meaning

Short form of Bernhard, from bern 'bear' and hart 'brave'.

Likelythe main view, with some doubt.

Spread through Saint Benno, patron of Munich.

Its wave through time

Rare in the records

In the United States

278 babies given this name since 1912
At its height in 1916, about 1 in 74,200 boys
6 babies in 2020

Through the ages

Used by

The family of the name

Italian	Benno

Famous bearers

Saint Benno of Meissen

Names worth a look

BertholdBoyFrom Germanic berht 'bright' and wald 'rule'.Middle Ages · forgotten

AnselmBoyFrom Germanic ans 'god' and helm 'helmet, protection'.Middle Ages · forgotten

EverardBoyFrom Germanic ebur 'boar' and hard 'hard, brave'.Middle Ages · forgotten

EmmerichBoyUncertain: derived variously from Amalric (amal + ric) or from heim + ric.Middle Ages · forgotten

BonifaceBoyLatin Bonifatius, 'good fate' (bonum and fatum); it was later reinterpreted as 'doer of good' (from facere).Early Medieval · forgotten

JürgenBoyLow German form of Georg, from Greek georgos 'farmer'.Middle Ages · forgotten

BenjaminBoyHebrew Binyamin, 'son of the right hand', which can also mean 'son of the south'.Biblical · peak 1981

BonnieGirlFrom Scots bonnie 'pretty, fine', probably from French bon 'good'.Victorian · peak 1942

Where this comes from

Calendars of saints and name days
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.