Benaiah
Benaiah was given to 176 boys in 2025, #1,170 among boys’ names; 2,421 Americans have been recorded with it since 1976 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 2,390 Americans named Benaiah and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (99% of everyone recorded); the median is 9 years old and half are between 5 and 14.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Benaiah by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
How popular is Benaiah?
#1,170 among boys’ names, 2025
Benaiah rose from #1,416 in 2015 to #1,170 in 2025 among boys’ names; its share of boys born rose from 0.06 to 0.10 per 1,000.
181 babies in 2025, the peak
Benaiah peaked in 2025, when 181 babies were given it (176 boys, #1,170 among boys’ names). In 2024 it went to 159 boys.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 176 | #1,170 | 0.10 |
| 2024 | 159 | #1,243 | 0.09 |
| 2023 | 120 | #1,490 | 0.07 |
| 2022 | 133 | #1,396 | 0.08 |
| 2021 | 166 | #1,182 | 0.09 |
| 2020 | 122 | #1,415 | 0.07 |
| 2019 | 158 | #1,210 | 0.09 |
| 2018 | 134 | #1,343 | 0.07 |
| 2017 | 128 | #1,378 | 0.07 |
| 2016 | 128 | #1,382 | 0.07 |
Every recorded year (48)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 121 | #1,416 | 0.06 |
| 2014 | 97 | #1,611 | 0.05 |
| 2013 | 87 | #1,696 | 0.05 |
| 2012 | 95 | #1,625 | 0.05 |
| 2011 | 67 | #2,018 | 0.04 |
| 2010 | 61 | #2,174 | 0.03 |
| 2009 | 47 | #2,623 | 0.02 |
| 2008 | 41 | #2,883 | 0.02 |
| 2007 | 40 | #2,921 | 0.02 |
| 2006 | 35 | #3,093 | 0.02 |
| 2005 | 26 | #3,625 | 0.01 |
| 2004 | 16 | #5,029 | 0.01 |
| 2003 | 17 | #4,627 | 0.01 |
| 2002 | 16 | #4,719 | 0.01 |
| 2001 | 13 | #5,409 | 0.01 |
| 2000 | 13 | #5,310 | 0.01 |
| 1999 | 17 | #4,172 | 0.01 |
| 1998 | 13 | #4,895 | 0.01 |
| 1997 | 15 | #4,261 | 0.01 |
| 1996 | 17 | #3,836 | 0.01 |
| 1995 | 8 | #6,459 | under 0.01 |
| 1994 | 10 | #5,486 | 0.01 |
| 1993 | 12 | #4,722 | 0.01 |
| 1992 | 7 | #6,724 | under 0.01 |
| 1991 | 12 | #4,501 | 0.01 |
| 1990 | 7 | #6,466 | under 0.01 |
| 1989 | 10 | #4,840 | under 0.01 |
| 1988 | 6 | #6,500 | under 0.01 |
| 1987 | 8 | #5,006 | under 0.01 |
| 1986 | 5 | #6,813 | under 0.01 |
| 1985 | 6 | #5,850 | under 0.01 |
| 1983 | 9 | #4,163 | 0.01 |
| 1982 | 7 | #5,061 | under 0.01 |
| 1981 | 7 | #5,000 | under 0.01 |
| 1979 | 6 | #5,419 | under 0.01 |
| 1978 | 6 | #5,123 | under 0.01 |
| 1977 | 5 | #5,929 | under 0.01 |
| 1976 | 7 | #4,473 | under 0.01 |
Ranks and shares: boys’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all boys SSA recorded that year.
Is Benaiah a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Benaiah has been given almost only to boys: 5 girls in 48 years of records.
Girls and boys named Benaiah: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Benaiah, and how old are they?
2,390 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 99% of the 2,421 Americans ever recorded as Benaiah. The median Benaiah alive today is 9 years old; half are between 5 and 14.
The 2020 Census counted 1,356 people named Benaiah (34 women and girls, 1,322 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 1,553 born in the U.S. The Census count is 13% below that prediction. Possible reasons: people who give a short form or another name to the Census, and a survival estimate that can run high.
Alive today, by age
Alive today, by generation
| Generation | Born | Alive |
|---|---|---|
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 22 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 125 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 525 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 1,720 |
An estimate, not a count. SSA’s files count people born in the United States who received a Social Security number, so anyone born abroad is not in them; before 1937 most people got a number as adults, and their survival is counted from that age.
Living estimate: SSA births carried forward with the survival rates in SSA’s cohort life tables (2024 Trustees Report) for each birth year and sex. How the estimate is made. Count: Census Bureau, first names in the 2020 Census (released April 14, 2026; names reported 100 or more times, with the Bureau’s disclosure-avoidance adjustment).
Where are babies named Benaiah born?
The states with the most babies named Benaiah are Texas, Tennessee and California, with 41% of its births recorded by state in 2025; Tennessee is not among the ten states with the most births.
| State | Births 2025 | Rank, boys | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| Texas | 19 | #1,138 | 0.8× |
| Tennessee | 13 | #555 | 1.0× |
| California | 11 | #1,515 | 0.6× |
| Arizona | 9 | #676 | 0.5× |
| Florida | 7 | #1,495 | 0.6× |
| Colorado | 7 | #691 | 1.0× |
| North Carolina | 7 | #1,043 | 0.5× |
| Ohio | 6 | #1,128 | 0.4× |
| Iowa | 6 | #501 | 0.4× |
| Maryland | 6 | #713 | 0.1× |
States: SSA state file, 1910-2025, published May 8, 2026; births count girls and boys together, and the rank is among boys’ names in the state in 2025. The file leaves out any state and year with fewer than 5 babies of the name, so small states are undercounted; each ratio compares the state’s births of Benaiah with the births its national share predicts year by year, for states with at least 100 births of the name.
Names spelled alike
Of these 2 names spelled alike, given to 2,582 babies since 1880, Benaiah is the most given (94% of them). In 2025 it was given to 181 of their 190 babies (95%), again the most given.
Spelled alike: names in the SSA national file with the same pattern of letters and sounds and at most two letters apart, and Wiktionary’s listed forms; births since 1880 and in 2025, and each name’s peak year, from the SSA national file, published May 8, 2026. Some are separate names, not spellings of one.
Names that rose and fell in the same decades as Benaiah
Names whose births rose and fell across the same decades, measured on each decade’s share of births.
Similar histories: each decade’s share of births, from the SSA national file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
More about Benaiah and names like it
- Compare Benaiah and BeniahBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2020sBenaiah peaked in 2025.
- Texas’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Benaiah since 1910.
- The top names of 2025The year the most babies were named Benaiah.
- The names of Generation AlphaMost people named Benaiah alive today were born 2013-2025.
- Names starting with BMost given first.