Benjamin (name)


Benjamin is a common given name for males, derived from Hebrew, Binyāmīn, translating as 'son of the right ' in both Hebrew and Arabic languages, although in the Samaritan Pentateuch the name appears as Binyaamem: 'son of my days'.
Benjamin is often shortened to Ben, and sometimes to Benny, Benito, Benjy, Benji, etc. It is also a patronymic surname. Like many biblical names, it is popular in the Jewish, Christian and Muslim faiths alike, having many variant forms in other languages.
The "Benjamin of the family" is a phrase used in several languages to refer to the youngest son – especially when he is much younger than his brothers. Sometimes the name is chosen for a son born to mature parents unlikely to have more children, especially if he has several older siblings. Both of these usages derive from the biblical son of Jacob of that name, who occupied that position in his family.
Alternate versions of the name exist for females, like Benjamina.

Variants

  • Arabic: بنيامين
  • Assyrian Neo-Aramaic: ܒܸܢܝܵܡܹܝܢ
  • Bengali: বিনয়ামিন, বিন ইয়ামিন, বনিয়ামিন, বেঞ্জামিন/বেনজামিন
  • Bosnian: Benjamin
  • Chinese: 本杰明 / 本雅明
  • Croatian: Benjamin
  • Czech: Benjamín
  • Dutch: Benjamin
  • English: Benjamin
  • Ethiopia: Biniyam
  • Eritrea: Biniyam
  • French: Benjamin
  • German: Benjamin
  • Greek: Βενιαμίν
  • Hawaiian: Peni
  • Hebrew: בנימין
  • Hindi: बेंजामिन
  • Hungarian: Benjámin
  • Icelandic: Benjamín
  • Indonesian: Benyamin, Benjamin
  • Italian: Beniamino
  • Latin: Benjamin
  • Japanese: ベンジャミン
  • Korean: 벤자민
  • Lithuanian: Benjaminas, Benas
  • Macedonian: Бенџамин, Венјамин
  • Norwegian: Benjamin
  • Polish: Beniamin
  • Portuguese: Benjamim
  • Romanian: Beniamin, Benjamin
  • Russian: Вениамин, Веня
  • Serbian: Бењамин
  • Slovak: Benjamín
  • Slovenian: Benjamin, Beno
  • Spanish: Benjamín
  • Swedish: Benjamin
  • Telugu: బెన్యామీను
  • Turkish: Bünyamin, Benyamin
  • Yiddish: Binyomin

    Given name

Notable people with the name Benjamin or its variant spellings include:
  • Benjamin II, the pen name of a Romanian traveller
  • Pope Benjamin II of Alexandria, Coptic Pope
  • Benjamin, ruler of the late 9th and early 10th centuries
  • Saint Benjamin, multiple people
  • Benjamin Adler, American electrical engineer and inventor
  • Ben Affleck, American film screenwriter, director and actor
  • Benjamin Agosto, American figure skater
  • Benjamin Alarie, Canadian legal scholar, law professor, and entrepreneur
  • Benjamin Balleret, Monegasque tennis player
  • Benjamin Banneker, American author and surveyor
  • Ben Barnes , British actor
  • Benjamin Biolay, French singer, songwriter, producer and actor
  • Benjamin Bowden, British industrial designer
  • Benjamin F. Bowles, African American civil rights leader, and founder and president of Douglass University.
  • Benjamin Brahmer, American football player
  • Benjamin Breedlove, American YouTube and internet personality
  • Benjamin Britten, British composer
  • Benjamin Buit, Dutch YouTuber
  • Benjamin Burnley, lead singer of American rock band Breaking Benjamin
  • Benjamin Butler, American lawyer, politician, soldier and businessman
  • Benjamin Cardozo, U.S. Supreme Court Justice
  • Benjamin Carrigan, Australian association football player
  • Benjamin F. Cheatham, Confederate general and California gold miner
  • Benjamin Chee Chee, Canadian artist
  • Benjamin Constant, Swiss-born French politician
  • Benjamin Constant , Brazilian general and politician
  • Benjamin Cutting, Australian cricketer
  • Benjamin Dahlström, Finnish footballer
  • Benjamin Daviet, French male cross-country skier and biathlete
  • Benjamin Diskin, American voice actor
  • Benjamin Disraeli, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
  • Benjamin Faunce, American druggist and businessman
  • Benjamin W. Fortson IV, American linguist
  • Benjamin Franklin, one of the Founding Fathers of the United States
  • Benjamin Frick, American politician from Pennsylvania
  • Benjamin Graham, British-born American investor, economist, and professor
  • Benjamin W. Gung, Chinese American organic chemist and academic
  • Benjamin Hall, multiple people
  • Benjamin Hance, Australian Paralympic swimmer
  • Benjamin Harrison, multiple people, but most notably:
  • *Benjamin Harrison, 23rd president of the United States
  • *Benjamin Harrison V, a Founding Father of the United States, signer of the Declaration of Independence, and Governor of Virginia
  • Benjamin Hick English engineer and inventor
  • Ben Hogan, American professional golfer
  • Ben Jonson, English playwright and poet, in his time second only to Shakespeare
  • Benjamin Kallos, American lawyer and politician
  • Benjamin Kapp, German curler
  • Benjamin Kheng, Singaporean singer
  • Benjamin Kimutai, Kenyan long-distance runner
  • Benjamin Kowalewicz, lead singer of Canadian rock band Billy Talent
  • Benjamin H. Kline, American cinematographer and film director
  • Benjamin Källman, Finnish footballer
  • Benjamin Lambert, American optometrist and politician
  • Benjamin Lay, Anglo-American abolitionist, activist, and humanitarian
  • Benjamin Leiner, American world champion lightweight Hall of Fame boxer
  • Benjamin Lock, Zimbabwean tennis player
  • Benjamin Luxon, British baritone singer
  • Benjamin Mazar, Israeli historian and archeologist; president of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem
  • Benjamin McKenzie, American actor
  • Benjamin Millepied, French dancer and choreographer
  • Benjamin K. Miller , American judge
  • Benjamin Mielke, German bobsledder
  • Benjamin Miskowitsch, German politician
  • Benjamin Mkapa, 3rd president of Tanzania
  • Benjamin Mwangata, Tanzanian boxer
  • Benjamin Netanyahu, Israeli prime minister
  • Benjamin Nolot, American documentary filmmaker
  • Benjamin Noriega-Ortiz, Puerto Rican-born interior designer
  • Benjamin of Tudela, 12th-century Spanish rabbi
  • Benjamin Okolski, American figure skater
  • Benjamin Orr, American bass guitarist and singer-songwriter of The Cars
  • Benjamin Palm, Ghanaian tennis player
  • Benjamin Pavard, French professional footballer
  • Benjamin Peltonen, Finnish recording artist, known mononymously as Benjamin
  • Benjamin Franklin Perera, Sri Lankan Sinhala diplomat
  • Benjamin Perrin, Canadian professor
  • Benjamin Pritchard, British para-rower
  • Benjamin Raschke, German politician
  • Benjamin Reemst, Dutch footballer
  • Benjamin Wood Richards, 59th mayor of Philadelphia
  • Benjamin Rush, American politician, revolutionary, humanitarian, physician, educator, and founder of Dickinson College
  • Don Benjamin Rupasinghe Gunawardena, Sri Lankan politician
  • Benjamin Shapiro, American conservative political commentator
  • Benjamin Frank Shelton American singer
  • Benjamin Šeško, Slovenian professional footballer
  • Ben Simm, multiple people, Benjamin, including Sim, Sims, Simms
  • Benjamin Smoke, American musician
  • Benjamin Spock, American pediatrician, political activist, and writer
  • Benjamin St-Juste, Canadian-American football player
  • Benyamin Sueb, Indonesian actor
  • Ben Stiller, American actor
  • Benjamin Tatar, Bosnia and Herzegovina footballer
  • Benjamin Tee, Singaporean scientist and inventor
  • Benjamin Timbrell, English master builder and architect
  • Benjamin Ungar, American fencer
  • Benjamin Verbič, Slovenian professional footballer
  • Benjamin de Vries, Dutch-Israeli economic historian
  • Benjamin Wade, American lawyer and US senator
  • Benjamin Wallace , American circus owner
  • Benjamin Wallace, American author and magazine writer
  • Benjamin Washburne, American pararower
  • Benjamin Lee Whorf, American linguist, known for contributing to the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis
  • Benjamin Wildman-Tobriner, American 2008 Gold Medal Olympic swimmer and former world record holder
  • Benjamin Willoughby, Justice of the Indiana Supreme Court
  • Benjamin Yuen, Hong Kong actor and singer
  • Benjamin Yusupov, Israeli classical composer, conductor and pianist
  • Benjamin Zablocki, American sociologist
  • Benjamin Zendel, Canadian psychologist
  • Benjamin E. Zeller, American academic
  • Benjamin Zephaniah, British poet and writer
  • Benjamin Zhang Bin, Chinese Manhua artist and illustrator
  • Biniam Girmay, Eritrean professional road cyclist
  • Biniam Mehary, Ethiopian middle and long-distance runner

    Fictional characters

  • Benjamin, a donkey from George Orwell's novel Animal Farm
  • Benjamin, in The Walking Dead television series
  • Benjamin the Elephant, the main character of the same named television series
  • Benjamin Bunny, Peter Rabbit's cousin in The Tale of Benjamin Bunny by Beatrix Potter
  • Benjamin Button, the title character of both short story and film
  • Benjamin C. L., known as Soldier Boy, from the third season of Amazon Prime Video's The Boys
  • Benjamin Franklin Parker, known as Uncle Ben, from Marvel Comics's Spider-Man
  • Principal Benjamin Krupp, the school principal and title character from Captain Underpants
  • Capt. Benjamin Franklin "Hawkeye" Pierce, the main character from the M*A*S*H novels, the film and the television series
  • Benjamin Jacob "Ben" Grimm, also known as the Thing, from Marvel Comics
  • Benjamin Richards/Ben Richards, main character in the 1987 movie The Running Man
  • Benjamin Sisko, Commanding Officer of Deep Space Nine in the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine television series
  • Benjamin Stilton, Geronimo Stilton's nephew and a main character in the Geronimo Stilton book series
  • Benjamin Kirby Tennyson from Cartoon Network's Ben 10 franchise
  • Gentle Ben, bear character created by Walt Morey, in the children's book and 1967 television series of the same name and the 1967 film Gentle Giant
  • Benjamin "Ben" Gross, a character on Netflix's Never Have I Ever portrayed by Jaren Lewison
  • Benjamin "Benjy" Compson, narrator of first section and mentally handicapped son of Jason from the William Faulkner novel "The Sound and the Fury".
  • Ben Solo, son of Han Solo and Leia Organa, main character in the sequel trilogy of Star Wars Saga portrayed by Adam Driver
  • Benjamin Selvester, main character of the novel Hammy House by Kaye Umansky.
  • Ben Linus, a recurring antagonist in ''Lost''