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Bennie vs Bentleigh

American parents have registered 62,689 Bennies since 1880, against 630 Bentleighs. Bennie is still ahead, with 114 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Bennie against Bentleigh, 1880 to 2025 0 400 800 1.2k 1.6k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Bennie Bentleigh

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

Of the 146 years in which either name was published, Bennie for 142 years and Bentleigh for 4 years. The lead changed hands 2 times.

Side by side

  Bennie Bentleigh
Total US births 62,689630
Most in one year 1,21571
Babies in 2025 11418
Estimated living today 23,000630
Median age today 6711
Peak year 19292011
Best rank 158th boys2,868th girls
Rank in 2025 2,516th8,362nd
First recorded 18802004
Girls / boys 9,936 / 52,753563 / 67

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 Bennies alive today are over 67; half the Bentleighs are over 11. That is 56 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: Bennie and Bentleigh.