Explore the Family Name Bening

The meaning of Bening

1. German: variant of Behning. 2. Dutch: habitational name from the farmstead Beninge, near Holthe in the Drenthe province, which once belonged to a certain Beno and his kin. Beno is a short form of the personal name Bernhard. Compare Benning.

Dictionary of American Family Names, 2nd edition, © Oxford University Press, 2022.

How common is the last name Bening in the United States?

Based on data from the Decennial U.S. Census, the surname Bening saw a slight decrease in popularity between 2000 and 2010. In 2000, it was the 73,154th most common surname and was held by 247 people, or approximately 0.09 per 100,000 individuals in the United States. By 2010, the ranking had dropped to 79,075, while the number of people with this surname decreased to 241. This represents a drop in proportion to approximately 0.08 per 100,000 individuals, marking an overall decrease of 11.11% in proportion and a 2.43% decrease in count over the decade.

	2000	2010	Change
Rank	#73,154	#79,075	-8.09%
Count	247	241	-2.43%
Proportion per 100k	0.09	0.08	-11.11%

Race and Ethnicity of people with the last name Bening

The ethnicity data from the Decennial U.S. Census reveals that almost all individuals with the surname Bening identify as White, with the percentage slightly increasing from 94.74% in 2000 to 95.44% in 2010. The percentage of those identifying as having two or more races significantly dropped from 2.02% to 0% over the same period. Interestingly, there was no recorded ethnic identity of Asian/Pacific Islander, Hispanic, or American Indian and Alaskan Native for this surname in both census years. However, there was a new emergence of Black ethnic identity at 2.07% in 2010, which was not present in 2000.

	2000	2010	Change
White	94.74%	95.44%	0.74%
Black	0%	2.07%	0%
Asian/Pacific Islander	0%	0%	0%
Two or More Races	2.02%	0%	-100%
Hispanic	0%	0%	0%
American Indian and Alaskan Native	0%	0%	0%