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Shem Tov · Hebrew names

Boy's nameOrigin: HebrewIn Israel: steady

BenIn Hebrew: בן · meaning, pronunciation and popularity in Israel

With vowel points: בֵּןRomanization: bén

Ben (Hebrew: בן) is a boy's name of Hebrew origin. 21,604 people born in Israel between 1949 and 2024 have it today, according to Israel's Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS). In 2024 it was given to 315 boys and ranked #61. Its peak year was 1991, with 603 babies.

People in Israel
21,604
born 1949–2024
Babies in 2024
315
rank #61
Peak year
1991
603 babies
USA, 2025
292
rank #843

Writing and saying Ben

In Hebrew letters the name is בן, read right to left. Ben is the Latin spelling recorded by our review; families choose their own spelling in passports, so you may also meet other forms. Wiktionary romanizes it as "bén" (the accent marks the stressed syllable).

Meaning and origin

  • a male given name, Ben
From Proto-Semitic *bin-. The unchanged form can still be found as a construct in certain proper nouns like יְהוֹשֻׁעַ בִּן־נוּן (“Joshua son of Nun”) or בִּנְיָמִין (“Benjamin”).

Quoted from English Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0), unchanged.

Ben by year: Israel and abroad

How many boys out of every 10,000 born each year have the name. For Israel it counts the people born that year who carry the name today (the CBS counts residents by year of birth, not birth registrations).

Ben: rate per 10,000, 1950–2025

per 10,000 babies of the same sex

Ben in English-speaking countries

Ben in each official list: latest year, count, rank and peak
Country / regionYearBabiesRankPeak
United States2025292#8431918 (1,276)
United Kingdom2025122#3832002 (3,774)
England and Wales202579#4882002 (3,190)
Scotland202528#1602004 (461)
Northern Ireland202515#1492004 (226)
Ireland2025121#412005 (401)
British Columbia20238#3992008 (28)
Alberta202512#3882012 (24)
Quebec202513#3542003 (13)

Counts for boys. The Hebrew page for Ben has every year and the other spellings.

Related Israeli names

Spelling variants and names that look or sound close in Hebrew.

Questions about Ben

How do you write Ben in Hebrew?

Ben is written בן in Hebrew (with vowel points: בֵּן). Hebrew is read right to left. A dictionary romanization is "bén".

How many people in Israel are named Ben?

21,604 people born between 1949 and 2024 carry the name בן: 0 women and 21,604 men. The count comes from the CBS table of current first names by year of birth; years with fewer than 5 people are not published.

Is Ben a boy's or a girl's name?

In Israel it is almost always a boy's name: 100.0% of the people named בן are men.

What does the name Ben mean?

English Wiktionary describes it as: "a male given name, Ben" Etymology: From Proto-Semitic *bin-. The unchanged form can still be found as a construct in certain proper nouns like יְהוֹשֻׁעַ בִּן־נוּן (“Joshua son of Nun”) or בִּנְיָמִין (“Benjamin”).

Is Ben used outside Israel?

The name Ben appears in the official baby name lists of English-speaking countries. In the United States 292 boys were given it in 2025 (#843), per the Social Security Administration. In the UK 122 in 2025 (ONS, NRS and NISRA combined).

Sources

Israel: Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS), current first names of people born 1949–2024 by sex, population group and year of birth, processed 2026-09-27. CBS publications.

Abroad

Counts are copied as published. We only merged accented spellings (Zoë = Zoe) and computed ranks and rates. Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Contains information licensed under the Open Government Licence – British Columbia and the Open Government Licence – Alberta.