Explore the Family Name Benzie

The meaning of Benzie

Scottish (Aberdeenshire): variant of Bennie. The letter -z- in the spelling of this name represents the Middle English letter ʒ, pronounced as -y- or as a palatalization of the preceding -n-.

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

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

Based on the data from the Decennial U.S. Census, the popularity of the surname Benzie saw a slight decrease between 2000 and 2010. In terms of ranking, it fell from 56,120 in 2000 to 59,742 in 2010, marking a decline of 6.45%. The total count of individuals bearing the surname also dipped slightly from 341 in 2000 to 338 in 2010, a change of -0.88%. Additionally, the proportion of the surname Benzie per 100k people decreased by 15.38%, dropping from 0.13 in 2000 to 0.11 in 2010.

	2000	2010	Change
Rank	#56,120	#59,742	-6.45%
Count	341	338	-0.88%
Proportion per 100k	0.13	0.11	-15.38%

Race and Ethnicity of people with the last name Benzie

The Decennial U.S. Census data reveals changes in the ethnic identity associated with the surname Benzie between 2000 and 2010. The percentage of those identifying as White decreased from 95.01% to 92.01%. Individuals identifying as Black remained relatively stable at around 2.37%. Interestingly, there was a small emergence of Asian/Pacific Islander and Hispanic identities within bearers of the surname, registering at 1.48% and 1.78% respectively in 2010, where there had been none reported in 2000. Meanwhile, the percentage of those claiming two or more races dropped to zero, and there were no reports of American Indian and Alaskan Native ethnicity amongst those with the Benzie surname.

	2000	2010	Change
White	95.01%	92.01%	-3.16%
Black	2.35%	2.37%	0.85%
Hispanic	0%	1.78%	0%
Asian/Pacific Islander	0%	1.48%	0%
Two or More Races	1.47%	0%	0%
American Indian and Alaskan Native	0%	0%	0%