Ben

given name · English · Latin script

Recorded for both men and women· direction only, no split published

Ben is a given name, most frequently recorded in the United Kingdom. In Tunisia it is the 29th most common given name. It appears chiefly in English and Hindi, written in the Latin script. Recorded meaning: A simple, strong Hebrew name meaning 'son'.

rarermore common
  • TNTunisia1 in 429◐
  • IEIreland1 in 559
  • AUAustralia1 in 610

carrying the name, one hue, darker where it is more common. Hover a country for its figure.

≈119K ●

across 10 countries

4 ●

recorded for this name

Sources
539 ●

2.0M records

Official registry-verified

1 in 3.1K ◐

United States

Spellings & scripts●

BenLatin · English●1.8M records
ԲենArmenian · Armenian●1 records
בעןHebrew · Yiddish●0 records
БенCyrillic · Tajik●0 records

Spellings marked ● are how people bearing the name write it in our records; ○ marks a model's transliteration. Click a spelling to open its page.

Meaning & origin●

A simple, strong Hebrew name meaning 'son'. While often a nickname for Benjamin or Benedict, it appears as a standalone name in the Bible.

Sources 1

  • Biblical Names Compiled Database

Attested across 19 languages in the etymology graph.

Where in the world●

Sorted by bearers counted by national registers, records where none counts.

Where Ben is recorded, by country
CountryMost common spellingSources
GB United Kingdom#146235,553174K rec.—40Ben303
AU Australia#110190,040161K rec.—93Ben307
US United States#355107,1471.2M rec.1 in 3.1K107KBen539
CA Canada#29044,94641K rec.—17Ben224
DE Germany#45538,64842K rec.——Ben221
NL Netherlands#51434,87313K rec.—3KBen159
PH Philippines#73128,89028K rec.——Ben108
IE Ireland#7516,6874K rec.—217Ben115
AT Austria#20114,5741.8K rec.—4.2KBen98
NG Nigeria#54313,83518K rec.——Ben101
MA Morocco#18510,55059K rec.——Ben113
ZA South Africa#3529,97211K rec.——Ben115

Country figures for a list of names, at full precision, are available under licence rather than by scraping this table. How that works.

Languages●

  • English1.8M57%
  • Hindi659K20%
  • French148K5%
  • Spanish79K2%
  • German76K2%
Show as table
Languages in which the name is recorded
NameRecordsNote
English1,844,33457%
Hindi659,16820%
French148,4385%
Spanish78,6962%
German76,1312%

Language is read off each record's context, not declared by the bearer; a share is of all records for this spelling.

Other names spelled this way◐

Ben is also recorded as 6 other names, grouped separately because the records behind them do not connect to the one described above.

  • Hindi given name707K records spelled Ben29 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in India, United States, United Kingdom, Canada

    Languages: Hindi, Bangla, Assamese

    Also written Benu, বেনু, বেন, Bên, বেনূ

  • French given name613K records spelled Ben28 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in France, United States, Morocco, United Kingdom

    Also written Bén, Bèn, Bên, Bën, Ben'

  • Spanish given name205K records spelled Ben16 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in United States, Brazil, Philippines, United Kingdom

    Languages: Spanish, Portuguese

    Also written Bén, Bën, Bên, Bèn, Bêñ

  • a separate given name69K records spelled Ben8 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in United States, Morocco, India, United Kingdom

    Also written Ḃen, Bēn, Bền, Beň, Bén

  • Hebrew surname56K records spelled Ben37 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in Israel, Morocco, Qatar, United States

    Also written בן, אהרן, אבן, איבן, בין

  • Chinese given name38K records spelled Ben8 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in United States, Taiwan, United Kingdom, China

    Also written Bên, Bêñ, Bèn, Bën, Bén

124 further groups record this spelling and are not listed here.

Grouping is the name graph's, not a register's: two spellings join a group when the evidence links them, so a group is a claim about the records rather than about the people.

Other recorded senses●

Ben is also recorded in 5 other lexicons, as a different name or as an ordinary word. These are senses of the spelling, not of the name above.

  • Derived from the Hebrew root 'banah' meaning 'to build', literally translating to 'son'.

    as a nameBiblical Names Compiled Database

  • The name signifies 'son' or 'builder of the family name'.

    as a nameBiblical Names Compiled Database

  • In German, from Hebrew ben 'son'; common name element

    as a nameDeutsche Namenkunde: Unsere Familiennamen nach ihrer Entstehung und Bedeutung

  • In French, Short form of Benjamin or Benedict/Benoît; Hebrew or Latin origin depending on full name.

    as a nameLe grand guide des prénoms (Enfant - Education)

  • Short form of Benjamin, or less commonly of Benedict or Bennett. Pet forms: Benny, Bennie.

    as a nameA concise dictionary of first names

Ordered by how much of this spelling's record each language holds, so a sense from a language the name is barely used in sits last rather than first.

Over time●

05001K1.5K1900195020001.3K · 1918

Show as table
Ben in SSA — National Baby Names (1880–present), United States, 1880–2025
Yearrecords
1880305
1881289
1882334
1883306
1884367
1885292
1886335
1887305
1888463
1889453
1890363
1891302
1892361
1893321
1894326
1895324
1896299
1897291
1898310
1899259
1900355
1901259
1902273
1903259
1904282
1905290
1906285
1907314
1908353
1909358
1910454
1911467
1912731
1913809
19141,005
19151,263
19161,191
19171,128
19181,276
19191,215
19201,138
19211,124
19221,120
19231,049
19241,170
19251,041
19261,013
19271,011
1928987
1929957
1930987
1931912
1932965
1933868
1934831
1935891
1936815
1937814
1938846
1939709
1940814
1941767
1942852
1943835
1944753
1945717
1946819
1947887
1948874
1949761
1950721
1951687
1952718
1953746
1954753
1955735
1956739
1957855
1958878
1959933
1960954
1961934
19621,044
1963945
1964870
1965727
1966683
1967553
1968630
1969578
1970620
1971578
1972591
1973535
1974541
1975603
1976590
1977626
1978572
1979549
1980518
1981522
1982436
1983431
1984444
1985428
1986431
1987426
1988430
1989437
1990367
1991352
1992358
1993333
1994292
1995322
1996315
1997372
1998353
1999391
2000376
2001394
2002408
2003440
2004454
2005447
2006455
2007409
2008405
2009389
2010337
2011344
2012311
2013310
2014336
2015331
2016354
2017327
2018351
2019339
2020313
2021327
2022330
2023311
2024314
2025292

US SSA — National Baby Names (1880–present) — 146 years between 1880–2025. One register's own figures, never a sum across registers: two registers counting the same people would double them.

Notable people with this name●

1400160018002000Ben Jonson, b. 1572Ben Roy Mottelson, b. 1926Ben Kingsley, b. 1943Ben Carson, b. 1951Ben Okri, b. 1959Ben Elton, b. 1959Ben Johnson, b. 1961Ben Wallace, b. 1970Ben Affleck, b. 1972Ben Davies, b. 1993
  • Ben Jonsonb. 1572GBEnglish playwright, poet, and actor (1572-1637)
  • Ben Roy Mottelsonb. 1926USDanish-American nuclear physicist (1926–2022)
  • Ben Kingsleyb. 1943GBEnglish actor (born 1943)
  • Ben Carsonb. 1951USNeurosurgeon and former United States Secretary of Housing and Urban Development
  • Ben Okrib. 1959NGNigerian-born British poet and novelist (1959-)
  • Ben Eltonb. 1959GBBritish comedian, author, playwright, actor and director
  • Ben Johnsonb. 1961CACanadian sprinter
  • Ben Wallaceb. 1970GBBritish politician, UK Defence Secretary (2019–2023)
  • Ben Affleckb. 1972USAmerican film actor, director and screenwriter (born 1972)
  • Ben Daviesb. 1993GBWelsh association football player (born 1993)

The ten people covered by the most Wikipedia language editions — a proxy for cross-cultural notability, which favours historical and Western figures over equally prominent contemporary ones — shown by birth year. Source: Wikidata (CC0).

Evidence●

Attested in 131 sources across 69 countries.

Official registers attesting Ben
CountryRegisterYearCountRank
US United StatesCensus Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex2020107K#526
AT AustriaStatistik Austria — STATatlas Vornamen WFS (per-name time series 1984–2024)20244.2K#44
US United StatesCensus Bureau — Surname Frequency 201020103.4K#9,596
FR FranceINSEE — Fichier des prénoms (1900–2024)20243.2K#494
US United StatesCensus Bureau — Surname Frequency 202020203.2K#9,765
SE SwedenSkatteverket — Sök hur många som har ett visst namn (living population)—3.2K#805
NL NetherlandsMeertens NVB — Nederlandse Voornamenbank (live per-name BRP counts, 1790-2017)—3K#1,058
US United StatesCensus Bureau — Surname Frequency 200020002.8K#10,408
BR BrazilIBGE — names by decade (Kaggle mirror)20222.1K—
BR BrazilIBGE — Censo 2022 Nomes no Brasil per-token lookup (v3 API, given+surname)—2.1K#4,872
ES SpainINE — Apellidos más frecuentes (Padrón Municipal)—1.7K#2,759
ES SpainINE — Padrón per-token widgets (current living counts, given + apellidos)—1.7K#2,758

Reference works 4

  • Nederlandse FamilienamenBank (Dutch surname bank; ex-Meertens Instituut, now CBG)2007
  • Wikipedia given-name tokens
  • Wikipedia surname tokens
  • Wikidata name items (native-script + romanized given/family names)

These works list the name; their figures are licensed and are not reproduced here.

Register rows as of the 2026-09-12 data build · 1,417 rows in the corpus for this spelling.

Frequently asked questions

How common is the name Ben?
We estimate roughly 119 thousand people bear Ben (counting its spellings and scripts) across 10 countries in our records.
In which country does Ben have the most bearers?
Ben is most frequently recorded in the United Kingdom, where it is most often spelled ben.
How common is Ben compared with other names?
In the United Kingdom, Ben is the 146th most common given name of 369,273 given names recorded there.
Is Ben a male or female name?
Ben is recorded for both men and women. We don't publish a percentage split: a record's gender belongs to the person and is attached to every given name on that record, so names in cultures where a name string also carries a parent's or spouse's given name pick up large cross-gender counts.
What does the name Ben mean?
Recorded meaning: A simple, strong Hebrew name meaning 'son'.
Query this name via API
curl https://api.mondonomo.ai/api/v1/name-graph/ben

The same payload this page is built from: spellings and scripts, countries and languages, related names, and the registers that attest the form. Rate-limited for casual use. Bulk access and licensing.

About this data

● measured from records◐ inferred from the name graph○ machine-generated

Data snapshot . Figures are rebuilt periodically and will change.

Statistics are aggregated from the Mondonomo name corpus; related names and etymology are inferred from the name graph; pronunciation and any machine-marked transliterations are model-generated. Read how the numbers are made, including their known failure modes, and where the data comes from.

Reference works we consult — surname dictionaries, official name registers, Wikidata and Wiktionary — are named directly, beside the claims they support. The per-country source counts also include datasets of person records: we publish how many there are and their authority tier, but not their names.

Cite this page Mondonomo, “Ben” — the 146th most common given name in United Kingdom. Data snapshot 2026-09-12.

See how Ben parses inside a full name →