Meaning and history
This name derives from the Hebrew בִּנְיָמִין (Binyamin), meaning “son of the south” or “son of the right hand,” from בֵּן (ben), “son,” and יָמִין (yamin), “right hand, south.” In the Old Testament, Benjamin was the twelfth and youngest son of Jacob and the founder of one of the southern tribes of the Hebrews; his mother Rachel first named him בֶּן־אוֹנִי (Ben-ʾoni), “son of my sorrow,” before Jacob changed the name after her death shortly after childbirth (Genesis 35:18). As an English name, Benjamin came into general use after the Protestant Reformation, and a well-known bearer was Benjamin Franklin (1706–1790), the American statesman, inventor, scientist, and philosopher.
20062006: 13,766 births, rank #24
2007: 13,282 births, rank #26
2008: 12,958 births, rank #25
2009: 13,123 births, rank #19
2010: 12,439 births, rank #22
20112011: 13,082 births, rank #19
2012: 12,835 births, rank #16
2013: 13,515 births, rank #14
2014: 13,830 births, rank #12
2015: 13,732 births, rank #10
20162016: 14,686 births, rank #6
2017: 13,858 births, rank #6
2018: 13,488 births, rank #6
2019: 13,044 births, rank #7
2020: 12,264 births, rank #7
20212021: 11,895 births, rank #7
2022: 10,912 births, rank #9
2023: 10,224 births, rank #11
2024: 9,865 births, rank #11
20252025: 9,762 births, rank #11
Benjamin has made a dramatic comeback. After first appearing in the US records in 1880, it fell to #155 by 1960, before climbing to #11 in 2025. Its highest annual birth count came in 1989, with 15,733 births.