Benton
Masculine · “settlement in the bent grass”
Benton is overwhelmingly a boys’ name — 10,415 boys against 6 girls since 1880.
Benton is the bent-grass settlement — an English place name from beonet, a coarse grass, and tun, a farmstead, both of them entirely ordinary Old English.
How old is the name Benton?
Benton was already in use when US birth records began in 1880 — it is at least 145 years old. The typical Benton alive today was born around 1990, making them about 35 years old. About 7,600 people named Benton are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Benton most popular?
Benton peaked in 1883, reaching #412 nationally. Today it ranks #1621, 1,209 places below that high. See the whole 1883 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From beonet tun to Benton
The story of Benton
Benton was an English place name and surname carried to America, where Thomas Hart Benton served thirty years in the Senate and his great-nephew of the same name became a major American painter. The surname entered given-name use in the nineteenth century and is in current use, part of the wider -ton family with Weston and Colton.
Meaning
settlement in the bent grass
From the Old English beonet, 'bent grass' — a coarse rush-like grass of poor ground — and tun, 'settlement' or 'enclosure'. Benton in Northumberland preserves it. Both elements are ordinary and the compound is transparent and undisputed.
How the name formed
- beonet tun
- Benton
Related forms: Bentonn · Bennington
Pronouncing Benton
BEN-tun
Two syllables, stress on the first. Said identically in every English accent.
Nicknames for Benton
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
- 1880
- Most boys named
- 2016278 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #412reached in 1883
- Change vs 2022
- −32.9%104 in 2025, from 155
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.
Benton in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Bentonn in English — spelling variant
- Bennington in English — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: Texas, Tennessee, Missouri.
Bentons among us
people named Benton are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 16,424 born in 2025 was named Benton
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
Fashion outlook
Benton 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
Where Benton is headed
Benton 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.
Benton beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Benton in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- The meaning is concrete and belongs to a very large family of English place names.
- Ben is available as a completely ordinary and current short form.
- A senator and a major American painter both carry it.
- It reads as a surname before it reads as a given name.
- Benson and Brenton are close enough to cause confusion.
- The Bent clipping is unfortunate as an English word.
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What they receive
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Benton
Masculine · #1621 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Bentons are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 7,600 people named Benton are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Benton in 2025?
- Benton ranks #1621 among US boy names in 2025, with 104 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Benton?
- About 1 in every 16,424 US boys born in 2025 was named Benton — 104 in all.
- Will my child share the name Benton with classmates?
- Benton will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Benton
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Kendrix#1621 · Teagan#1621 · Ahaan#1621 · Antony#1621 · Obadiah#1621 · Theoden#1621 · Tylen#1621 · Carmen#1621
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Benton? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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