Benji
Masculine · “From Benjamin”
Benji is overwhelmingly a boys’ name — 2,285 boys against 63 girls since 1880.
Benji is the affectionate end of Benjamin, one of the oldest continuously used names in the Western world — worn down over centuries the way household names always are, to two easy syllables that land on a bright ee. It has been a pet name for a very long time and a name on its own paperwork for a much shorter one, and both readings still hold.
How old is the name Benji?
Benji first appears in US birth records in 1952 — 73 years ago. The typical Benji alive today was born around 2012, making them about 13 years old. About 2,200 people named Benji are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Benji most popular?
Benji peaked in 1975, reaching #622 nationally. Today it ranks #1341, 719 places below that high. See the whole 1975 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Binyamin to Benji
The story of Benji
Benjamin came into English through the Greek and Latin translations of the Hebrew Bible, and spread widely among English-speaking Protestants from the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries onward, when biblical names were chosen in great numbers. Alongside Ben and Benny, families clipped it to Benjy — the spelling with a final i, Benji, is the modern preference, and it began appearing on American birth records in its own right in the middle of the twentieth century. A run of family films about a scruffy stray dog named Benji, made in the 1970s, put the spelling in front of a very large audience and it has stayed legible ever since. Today it moves in both directions: given at birth to some, and still the everyday name of plenty of men whose documents read Benjamin.
Meaning
From Benjamin, Hebrew for "son of the right hand"
The Hebrew Binyamin is read "son of the right hand" — the right hand carrying a sense of favor and strength. Because Hebrew orientation puts the right hand to the south, scholars also read the same words as "son of the south". In Genesis, Benjamin is the youngest of Jacob's twelve sons.
How the name formed
- Binyamin
- Benjamin
- Benjy
- Benji
Related forms: Binyamin · Benjy · Benjie · Benja · Beniamino · Benjámin
Pronouncing Benji
BEN-jee
Two syllables, stress on the first, the j soft as in "jam". Almost never mispronounced by an English speaker at first sight.
Nicknames for Benji
High
What the data says
146 years of official birth records
The long climb, and where it stands now
The same years in position rather than babies
- First recorded
- 1952
- Most boys named
- 2025142 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #622reached in 1975
- Change vs 2024
- +35.2%142 in 2025, from 105
Rank is a position, a count is a headcount, and they move independently — a name can hold its rank while the number of babies behind it falls. Source: U.S. Social Security Administration.
Benji in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Binyamin in Hebrew — related form
- Benjy in English — spelling variant
- Benjie in English — spelling variant
- Benja in Spanish — related form
- Beniamino in Italian — related form
- Benjámin in Hungarian — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas, Pennsylvania.
Benjis among us
people named Benji are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 12,029 born in 2025 was named Benji
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Nancy test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Benji's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Nancy climbed just as high around 1938, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Nancy's path sketches the road Benji is walking now.
Benji is on its second act. Revived names age gently: the generation that wore them first is far enough away that the name feels classic rather than dated.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Where Benji is headed
Benji should hold steady through 2030 — the curve is flat, and flat curves are the most predictable kind.
Medium confidence — fitted on official counts through 2025.
A damped-trend projection of the official birth data — a sketch of momentum, not a promise. Every name's forecast, ranked.
Benji beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Benji in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Reads correctly on sight for anyone who knows Benjamin, which is nearly everyone in the English-speaking world.
- Sits inside a very old formal name, so a child can move between Benji, Ben and Benjamin as occasion requires.
- Ben and Benny travel easily across languages, and cousins of the name exist in Spanish, Italian and Hebrew.
- Familiar in sound while still rare in practice — a child is unlikely to share it with a classmate.
- It is a diminutive doing a full name's job. Some people will assume the birth certificate says Benjamin and will write it that way; if you want the short form official, expect to correct forms and teachers now and then.
- The dog in the 1970s films is the best-known Benji to many adults. It is affectionate rather than mocking, but it is there.
- Benjy and Benjie are both in circulation, so the final letter will occasionally need spelling out.
- If you want the standing of the long form and the ease of the short one, naming him Benjamin and calling him Benji gets you both without closing any doors.
Nobody names a baby alone.
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What they receive
Someone added a name to your list
Benji
Masculine · #1341 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Benjis are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 2,200 people named Benji are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Benji in 2025?
- Benji ranks #1341 among US boy names in 2025, with 142 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Benji?
- About 1 in every 12,029 US boys born in 2025 was named Benji — 142 in all.
- Will my child share the name Benji with classmates?
- Benji will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Benji
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Hadi#1341 · Trent#1341 · Shilo#1341 · Caysen#1339 · Endrick#1339 · Zaiel#1345 · Santiel#1345 · Torin#1347
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Benji? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Benji and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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