Benay

Girls' name

Literal meaning not recorded

Benay has been given to 209 babies in the U.S. since 1938. It was used fewer than 5 times in 2025, so it doesn't appear in the latest year's list — today it's a genuinely uncommon pick. Its peak year was 1954, with 14 recorded.

Babies named Benay, 1971

1 in 572,000

Benay over time, 1880–2025

Girls

Based on births in the U.S. Babies given the name each year. Hover the chart — or focus it and use the arrow keys — for any year. Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Benay: meaning, origin, and history

Literal meaning not recorded

Deeper origin not confirmed in the cited records

What Benay means

Benay is a given name.

Origin, language, and formation

Benay is used in Turkish.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 209 girls were recorded with the name Benay between 1938 and 1971. Its highest annual count was 14 in 1954; its best national rank was #2,779 in 1944.

Sources & methodologyReferences, data & attribution

Meaning, origin, and language notes draw on the references below.

American popularity figures use published Social Security Administration records for this exact spelling. Counts below five for a name, sex, and year are omitted.

Wiktionary material is available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

How common is Benay?

Benay had fewer than 5 recorded uses in 2025, so these figures use 1971, the last year it was published.

Among all babies, 1971: 1 in 572,000; 6 of 3,432,187 births
Among girls only: 1 in 277,000; <0.01% of girls
Rank, 1971: Unranked; Fewer than 5 uses
Coin-flip room size: 396,503 kids; Even odds of a second one

Where Benay sits on the popularity scale

Rarest published (5 a year)#1 — Olivia (13,544)

Chance at least one other child shares the name

If the other children were drawn at random from the 1971 national name distribution. Real classrooms cluster by region and community, so treat these as a floor, not a ceiling.

Class of 20Under 1%

Class of 30Under 1%

Grade of 100Under 1%

School of 500Under 1%

Put another way: gather 396,503 children born in 1971 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Benay. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Benays were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Benay was born before 1954 — so the typical Benay is around 71 today.

Median birth year: 1954; About 71 years old
Biggest decade: 1950s; 37.3% of all use
Born in the last 25 years: 71.3%; A modern name
Recorded since 1950: 138; People you could plausibly meet

Choose a decade

1950s — 37.3% of all recorded uses (78).

Is Benay rising or falling?

Rank movement and count movement can disagree — the number of distinct names in use keeps growing, so a name holding a steady count still slides down the list. Both are shown.

Rank vs 1 year ago: —; Not ranked then
Rank vs 5 years ago: New entry; Not ranked then
Rank vs 10 years ago: —; Not ranked then
Births vs 10 years ago: —; Not published both years
Share of its own peak: 0%; Peak was 1954 (14)
Years since peak: 71; Years
Year-to-year steadiness: Volatile; 34.9% average annual change
Best rank ever: #2,779; 1944

Spellings of Benay

Benay is not the most common spelling — Betty is, with 51.5% against Benay's 0.01%.

Betty51.5%1,001,238
Wendy13.5%262,325
Lena7.5%146,479
Penny5.2%100,619
Jenny4.7%92,101
Becky4.5%86,898
Betsy2.5%48,947
Rena2.0%39,124

Grouped by closeness of spelling (up to two letter changes), same sex, with a floor on all-time use. It catches Sophia/Sofia and Aiden/Ayden, and misses spellings that sound alike but look different, like Sean and Shawn.

Where Benay is used

Across 1910–2025, Benay was most concentrated in New York — about 1 in — girls, against 1 in 1,136,945 across all states with data.

00 per 100,000

State popularity map

Most concentrated

1New York1 in —

Shading is the share of that state's recorded girls given this name, not the raw count — otherwise the map would just show which states are biggest. Unshaded states have no published records for this period. U.S. birth records suppress state-year counts below 5; state counts therefore don't add up to the national total. Every state links to its full rankings. Benay has too little recent state data to map, so this covers all years from 1910.

Benay by the numbers

The raw record for each sex the name is used for.

As a girl's name

Rank in 2025: Unranked
Trend vs 5 yrs ago: —
Best rank ever: #2,779; 1944
Peak year: 1954; 14 that year
First recorded: 1938
Last recorded: 1971
All-time count: 209
Count in 2025: Under 5

Names similar to Benay

Matched on shared beginnings and endings, similar length, and comparable popularity.

Benni Benny Benna Benelli Beni Bennet Bena Bennye Lanay Danay Benji Bentli Lenay Benson Jonay Bently Tanay Bentlee Bentlie Benicia Ranay Denay Jahnay Monay

Sibling names for Benay

Names from the same era and popularity tier — the two things that make a sibling set feel deliberate — skipping lookalike spellings and shared initials.

For a sister

Marita Jacalyn Luanne Romona Louann Madonna Merry Gayla

For a brother

Stanton Stanford Lindsey Jerrold Leigh Garth Sandy Dirk

Explore around Benay

Top names of 1954, Benay's peak year The 1950s in full Other names that peaked in 1944 Girls' names starting with B Short Turkish Girl Names