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Benjamin vs Benjie

American parents have registered 829,312 Benjamins since 1880, against 953 Benjies. Benjamin is still ahead, with 9,770 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Benjamin against Benjie, 1880 to 2025 0 4k 8k 12k 16k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Benjamin Benjie

Each line is every baby given the name that year, girls and boys added together — the only count that means the same thing for both names. A line breaks where the name fell below five babies in a year — the point at which the SSA stops publishing it — rather than being drawn through a figure nobody published. A single published year in a gap shows as a dot.

Who was ahead

Benjamin has been the commoner name in every year either was published, 1880 to 2025. The lead has never changed hands.

The closest they came was 1960, when Benjamin had 2,258 and Benjie had 52.

Side by side

  Benjamin Benjie
Total US births 829,312953
Most in one year 15,78852
Babies in 2025 9,7705
Estimated living today 719,000750
Median age today 2760
Peak year 19891962
Best rank 29th boys1,082nd boys
Rank in 2025 11th12,008th
First recorded 18801935
Girls / boys 2,482 / 826,83031 / 922

A rank is a position within one sex’s list for one year, so the two rank rows are not subtracted from one another and the winning column is not marked on them. The living figure is a life-table estimate, not a count.

Which name is older

Half of the Benjies alive today are over 60; half the Benjamins are over 27. That is 33 years between them: two names in use at the same time, worn by two different generations.

Where each one is strongest

How much commoner the name is in that state than it is nationally, from births recorded since 1910.

Compare something else

Related comparisons

Social Security Administration birth records, 1880–2025, public domain. Full histories: Benjamin and Benjie.