Bently
Masculine · “bent-grass clearing”
Bently is given to both — 2,443 boys and 81 girls since 1880. See other names given to both
Bentley is a clearing where bent-grass grows, and bent-grass is a real plant: a tough, wiry grass that takes over poor ground. Several English villages carry the name, and the surname followed. Bently without the e is the American respelling.
How old is the name Bently?
Bently first appears in US birth records in 1915 — 110 years ago. The typical Bently alive today was born around 2012, making them about 13 years old. About 2,400 people named Bently are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Bently most popular?
Bently peaked in 2011, reaching #574 nationally. Today it ranks #5045, 4,471 places below that high. See the whole 2011 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From beonet-leah to Bently
The story of Bently
There are Bentleys in Hampshire, Yorkshire, Warwickshire and elsewhere, all named for the same grass, and families from them carried the surname. It crossed to America and would have stayed a surname but for a car: a British marque founded in 1919 made the word a byword for expensive, and American parents began giving it as a first name in the two-thousands, for both sexes. The spelling without the e is one of several respellings that arrived with the popularity.
Meaning
bent-grass clearing
Old English beonet, bent-grass, joined to leah, a clearing in woodland. The plant is unglamorous and the name is entirely descriptive, which is true of most English place names.
How the name formed
- beonet-leah
- Bentley
- Bently
Related forms: Bentley
Pronouncing Bently
BENT-lee
Two syllables, stress in front. Bentley and Bently are said identically.
Nicknames for Bently
Moderate
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
- 1915
- Most boys named
- 2011436 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #574reached in 2011
- Change vs 2024
- −51.3%19 in 2025, from 39
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.
Bently in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Bentley in English — spelling variant
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Missouri, Texas.
Bentlys among us
people named Bently are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 89,899 born in 2025 was named Bently
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 Theadore test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Bently's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Theadore climbed just as high around 1905, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Theadore's path sketches the road Bently is walking now.
Bently sits in the calm middle of the cycle — neither chasing a wave nor sliding off one. Middle-of-the-cycle names age slowly and predictably.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Bently beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Bently in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Ben is a ready short form and one of the most comfortable in English.
- The meaning is a plain piece of English landscape.
- Every sound is ordinary English, so nobody stumbles.
- Bentley is the standard spelling and this one will be corrected constantly.
- The car association is very strong and is what most people hear first.
- It is given to both sexes, so paperwork does not always guess right.
Nobody names a baby alone.
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What they receive
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Bently
Masculine · #5045 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Bentlys are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 2,400 people named Bently are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Bently in 2025?
- Bently ranks #5045 among US boy names in 2025, with 19 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Bently?
- About 1 in every 89,899 US boys born in 2025 was named Bently — 19 in all.
- Will my child share the name Bently with classmates?
- Bently will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Bently
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Silver#5045 · Daymon#5045 · Thierry#5045 · Mehmet#5045 · Tyrel#5045 · Teague#5045 · Zeyad#5045 · Gardner#5045
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Bently? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Bently and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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