Bent

Meaning & origin●

Attested across 19 languages in the etymology graph.

Languages●

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◐

Bent is also recorded as 5 other names, grouped separately because the records behind them do not connect to the one described above.

• English given name65K records spelled Bent30 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in United States, Netherlands, Germany, Tunisia

  Languages: English, German, Western Frisian

  Also written Bént, Bênt, Bënt, Bëñt, Bēnt

• French given name5.1K records spelled Bent30 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in France, Belgium, United States, Tunisia

  Languages: French, Catalan

  Also written Bént, Bênt, Bënt, Ben'T, Bènt

• Turkish given name1.4K records spelled Bent6 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in Morocco, Türkiye, Tunisia, Netherlands

  Languages: Turkish, Azerbaijani

  Also written Bënt, Bênt, Bént

• Hindi given name926 records spelled Bent9 spellings in the group

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

  Languages: Hindi, Urdu

  Also written Bènt, Bént, Bêńť, Bĕňț, Bęñt

• a separate given name505 records spelled Bent19 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in Norway, United States, Tunisia, Algeria

  Also written Bênt, Bëñt, Bént, Bēnt, Bęñť

55 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●

Bent 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.

• In English, Nicholas Bent 1256 AssNb; Henry, Adam del Bent 1327, 1332 SRSt. ‘Dweller by the grassy plain, heath’, ME bent, from OE beonet ‘stiff grass’.

  as a name·A Dictionary of English Surnames

• In Danish, a male given name, equivalent to English Benedict

  as a word·kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)

• In Swedish, Bent är en nordisk form av latinets Benedictus (→ Bengt), vanligast i Danmark, men användes även i Sverige under medeltiden.

  as a name·Förnamn i Sverige. Kortfattat namnlexikon

• Danish: simplified form of Bendt (see BENEDICT ).

  as a word

• In Dutch, second-person singular present indicative of zijn; are

  as a word·kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)

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●

NO SSB — Navn (1880–present) — 56 years between 1945–2004. One register's own figures, never a sum across registers: two registers counting the same people would double them.

Notable people with this name●

• Bent Gabrielsenb. 1928DKDanish jeweler
• Bent Christensenb. 1929DKDanish film director and actor (1929–1992)
• Bent Larsenb. 1935DKDanish chess grandmaster and author (1935–2010)
• Bent August Mejdingb. 1937DKDanish actor, theater manager and director (1937–2024)
• Bent Flyvbjergb. 1952DKDanish economic geographer
• Bent Hamerb. 1956NONorwegian film director, screenwriter and film producer (born 1956)
• Bent Skammelsrudb. 1966NONorwegian footballer
• Bent Christensen Arensøeb. 1967DKDanish footballer
• Bent Ånund Ramsfjellb. 1967NONorwegian male curler
• Bent Høieb. 1971NONorwegian politician (born 1971)

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●

Register rows as of the 2026-09-12 data build · 315 rows in the corpus for this spelling.

Frequently asked questions

How common is the name Bent?

We estimate roughly 19 thousand people bear Bent (counting its spellings and scripts) across 9 countries in our records.

In which country does Bent have the most bearers?

We estimate about 15 thousand people bear Bent in Denmark, more than in any other country in our records, where it is most often spelled bent.

Where is Bent most common?

Bent is densest in Denmark, where the national register counts about 1 in 381 people carrying it.

How common is Bent compared with other names?

In Denmark, Bent is the 64th most common given name of 31,396 given names recorded there.

Is Bent a male or female name?

Bent is a male name in our records. Opposite-gender entries fall within the cross-gender noise we measure in the source data, so we don't report them as usage.

What does the name Bent mean?

Recorded meaning: dweller by the grassy plain, heath; first attested Nicholas Bent 1256 AssNb