Benjy
Benjy was given to 8 boys in 2025, #9,022 among boys’ names; 362 Americans have been recorded with it since 1936 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Benjy by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Benjy mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Benjy is “a diminutive of the male given name Benjamin.”
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Benjy?
#9,022 among boys’ names, 2025
Benjy entered the boys’ rankings after 2015 and stood at #9,022 in 2025.
29 babies in 1974, the peak
Benjy peaked in 1974, when 29 boys were given it, #1,664 among boys’ names. The 8 births of 2025 are 28% of that peak.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 8 | #9,022 | 4.7 |
| 2021 | 5 | #12,383 | 2.9 |
| 2020 | 5 | #12,254 | 2.9 |
| 2019 | 5 | #12,388 | 2.8 |
| 2017 | 5 | #12,499 | 2.7 |
| 2010 | 5 | #12,450 | 2.6 |
| 2005 | 7 | #9,228 | 3.5 |
| 2004 | 5 | #11,547 | 2.5 |
| 2003 | 5 | #11,061 | 2.5 |
| 1979 | 6 | #5,422 | 3.5 |
Every recorded year (35)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1978 | 6 | #5,125 | 3.7 |
| 1977 | 10 | #3,630 | 6.1 |
| 1976 | 22 | #2,119 | 14.0 |
| 1975 | 23 | #2,008 | 14.7 |
| 1974 | 29 | #1,664 | 18.4 |
| 1973 | 16 | #2,410 | 10.3 |
| 1972 | 17 | #2,251 | 10.5 |
| 1971 | 16 | #2,372 | 9.0 |
| 1970 | 8 | #3,548 | 4.3 |
| 1969 | 10 | #2,883 | 5.6 |
| 1968 | 7 | #3,396 | 4.0 |
| 1965 | 10 | #2,636 | 5.4 |
| 1964 | 9 | #2,876 | 4.5 |
| 1963 | 20 | #1,796 | 9.8 |
| 1962 | 11 | #2,519 | 5.3 |
| 1961 | 11 | #2,560 | 5.2 |
| 1960 | 9 | #2,889 | 4.2 |
| 1959 | 11 | #2,543 | 5.2 |
| 1958 | 14 | #2,182 | 6.6 |
| 1957 | 10 | #2,653 | 4.6 |
| 1956 | 5 | #3,988 | 2.4 |
| 1955 | 9 | #2,781 | 4.4 |
| 1954 | 10 | #2,604 | 4.9 |
| 1953 | 7 | #3,160 | 3.5 |
| 1936 | 6 | #3,178 | 5.8 |
Ranks and shares: boys’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all boys SSA recorded that year.
Is Benjy a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Benjy has been recorded only for boys: SSA lists no girls with the name in 35 years of records (it lists a name only in years with 5 or more babies of a sex).
Girls and boys named Benjy: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Benjy, and how old are they?
An estimated 303 Americans named Benjy and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (84% of everyone recorded); the median is 54 years old and half are between 50 and 63. An estimate from SSA’s births and life tables, not a count.
The 2020 Census counted 340 people named Benjy (21 women and girls, 319 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 302 born in the U.S. The Census count is 13% above that prediction. Possible reasons: the Census counts people born abroad, whom SSA’s files leave out, and it records the name people give, which SSA may have recorded under another spelling or as part of a compound name.
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).
Names spelled alike
Of these 3 names spelled alike, given to 3,663 babies since 1880, Benjy is the third most given (9.9% of them). In 2025 it was given to 8 of their 155 babies (5.2%), the second most given that year.
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.
More about Benjy and names like it
- Compare Benjy and BenjiBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 1970sBenjy peaked in 1974.
- North Carolina’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Benjy since 1910.
- The top names of 1974The year the most babies were named Benjy.
- The names of Generation XMost people named Benjy alive today were born 1965-1980.
- Names starting with BMost given first.