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Bennie vs Benuel

American parents have registered 62,689 Bennies since 1880, against 949 Benuels. Bennie is still ahead, with 114 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

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

Bennie Benuel

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

Bennie 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 2015, when Bennie had 58 and Benuel had 29.

Side by side

  Bennie Benuel
Total US births 62,689949
Most in one year 1,21533
Babies in 2025 11430
Estimated living today 23,000910
Median age today 6720
Peak year 19292021
Best rank 158th boys3,427th boys
Rank in 2025 2,516th3,658th
First recorded 18801945
Girls / boys 9,936 / 52,7530 / 949

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 Benuels are over 20. That is 47 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 Benuel.