Benjamin
PopularA boy's name meaning son of the right hand.
Approved in Estados Unidos. Benjamin is on the official SSA list of names you can register. In the national top 20 of 2025.
Origin
From Biblical Hebrew Binyamin, formed from ben (son) and yamin (right hand, south). The exact sense is debated: some read yamin as days, giving son of days, while Jerome understood it as son of the right hand.
Story
In the Old Testament, Benjamin was the youngest son of Jacob and Rachel and founded one of the tribes of Israel. Rachel, who died giving birth to him, first named him Ben-oni (son of my sorrow), which Jacob changed to Benjamin. It spread through the English-speaking world after the Protestant Reformation.
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Get startedSources & references
- Baby Names from Social Security Card Applications · SSA · ssa.gov (approved-name list & birth statistics)
- Behind the Name · Benjamin
- Wiktionary · Benjamin