Bento
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Meaning
blessed
The story
Bento is a Portuguese short form of Benedito, from Latin Benedictus, “blessed.” In Portuguese Christian tradition, Saint Benedict of Nursia is São Bento. His monastery at Monte Cassino is conventionally dated to around 529.
Benedict’s Rule set out an order for prayer, reading and manual work, along with instructions about meals, clothing, guests and sick members. It drew on earlier monastic traditions and became influential in Western Christian communities. In 1964, Pope Paul VI proclaimed him patron of Europe.
Bento Spinoza belonged to a different religious setting: Amsterdam’s Portuguese-Jewish community. His Portuguese Bento, Hebrew Baruch and Latin Benedictus all convey “blessed.” He worked at grinding lenses. In Ethics, he investigates nature, human emotions and the possibility of becoming freer through understanding them. His political and religious writings defend freedom of thought. When he declined a professorship at Heidelberg, he questioned what limits the offer’s religious condition might place on that freedom.
Brazil supplies a recent chapter for the exact name Bento. In Brazil’s 2022 census, residents with that first name had a median age of 6. These were people living in Brazil at the census.
How popular is Bento around the world?
In the United States, 132 babies were named Bento between 2020 and 2025. At the 2022 census, 39,973 people in Brazil were named Bento, the 666th most common name, with a median age of 6.
Bento is on the official records of the United States, Brazil, Ireland, Austria, England and Wales and Spain.
United States
1 in 170,000
In the United States, 132 babies were named Bento between 2020 and 2025.
Shape drawn from US Social Security baby-name records. Bento has stayed rare in US records the whole time: no peak decade to name.
Births with a Social Security record. Source: U.S. Social Security Administration
Brazil
1 in 5,100
At the 2022 census, 39,973 people in Brazil were named Bento, the 666th most common name, with a median age of 6.
Among people named Bento living in Brazil at the 2022 census, more were born in the 2010s than in any other decade.
people alive at the 2022 census, by decade of birth
The census also counted 14,713 born between 2020 and August 2022, too recent a span to chart. People alive and resident in Brazil at the 2022 census, a living-population count, not births; names under 20 are withheld at source. Source: IBGE, Censo Demográfico 2022
Ireland
1 in 14,000
In Ireland, 4 boys named Bento were born in 2025, the 676th most common name among boys that year.
The count never rose above 4 in a year, too few to chart.
Exact registered spellings from Irish vital statistics; any name under 3 in a year is withheld at source, and accented spellings (fadas) are recorded reliably only from 2018. Source: Central Statistics Office (Ireland), Irish babies' names
Austria
1 in 38,000
In Austria, 2 boys named Bento were born in 2025, ranked 1,241st among boys that year, spellings that differ only by special characters counted together.
The count never rose above 2 in a year, too few to chart.
Live births in Austria by year of birth, 1984–2025, from Statistik Austria’s first-name statistics; spellings that differ only by special characters are counted together (umlauts stay apart), every name down to a single birth is published, and the count covers babies with Austrian citizenship only until 2009, every baby from 2010, and from 2015 also births abroad to mothers living in Austria. Shares divide by Statistik Austria’s count of live births from 2010, and before that by the file’s own total for the year. Source: Statistik Austria - data.statistik.gv.at (OGDEXT_VORNAMEN_1, updated 2026-07-09)
England and Wales
1 in 84,000
In England and Wales, 7 boys named Bento were born in 2025, ranked 2,952nd among boys that year.
The count never rose above 7 in a year, too few to chart.
Birth registrations in England and Wales (not the whole UK); exact spellings are counted separately, and any spelling under 3 in a year is withheld at source. Source: Office for National Statistics, baby names in England and Wales
Spain
1 in 710,000
In Spain, 63 residents are named Bento, ranked 11,965th among men, with a mean age of 14.7 years.
Residents of Spain on 1 January 2025. Spain publishes how old a name’s living bearers are, not a birth series, so there is no year chart. Source: INE (Spain), Censo de Población anual, 1 January 2025
Argentina
last on record 2023
Bento is not on the 2024 record for Argentina, where small counts are withheld at source.
The count never rose above 2 in a year, too few to chart.
Given-name components of births in Argentina 2012–2024; national cells are lower bounds and no sex split is published. Source: RENAPER (Argentina), Dirección Nacional de Población, given names 2012-2024
Canada
last on record 2018
Bento is not on the 2024 record for Canada, where names under 5 in a year are excluded at source.
The count never rose above 5 in a year, too few to chart.
First given names from provincial and territorial vital statistics across Canada; any name-sex-year under 5 is excluded at source, and small Quebec counts carry a randomized adjustment made at source. Shares divide by Statistics Canada’s count of live births for the year; the 2024 count is preliminary. Source: Statistics Canada, first names at birth (table 17-10-0147-01)
Not on the record in Mexico City, Puerto Rico, New Zealand, Scotland and Poland: those registries withhold small counts, so rare uses may sit below their floors.
Not on the Chile record: nametree keeps spellings that reached 5 registrations in some year, so rarer uses are not shown. Not on the Montevideo record for 1940 to 2011: that registry withholds nothing, so this spelling was not given there in those years. Not on the France record: nametree keeps spellings that reached 20 births in some year, so rarer uses are not shown. Not on the South Australia record for 1944 to 2017: that registry withholds nothing, so this spelling was not given there in those years. Not on Norway’s list: Statistics Norway lists only first names carried by 200 or more living people, so rarer names are not shown.
Keep exploring
The Bento deep dive
Whether you’re naming a baby or exploring your own name’s history, this is a personal letter, not a list: where Bento truly comes from, how it traveled, and what a century of records reveals. If you have grown a tree on nametree, it also considers how Bento fits with your family’s names and surname.
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