Explore the Family Name Bessent

The meaning of Bessent

English (Hampshire): from Middle English besant, besand, the name of a gold coin first minted at Byzantium (Old French besan, plural besanz, Latin byzantius), probably used to denote a moneyer.

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

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

Based on the Decennial U.S. Census data, the surname Bessent saw a slight increase in popularity between 2000 and 2010. In 2000, it was ranked 30,614 in terms of commonality among surnames, rising to a rank of 30,303 in 2010. This represents a change of 1.02 percent. The count of people with this surname also rose from 719 to 772 during that same period, a growth of 7.37 percent. However, when measured as a proportion per 100,000 people, there was a minor decrease of -3.7 percent.

	2000	2010	Change
Rank	#30,614	#30,303	1.02%
Count	719	772	7.37%
Proportion per 100k	0.27	0.26	-3.7%

Race and Ethnicity of people with the last name Bessent

In terms of ethnicity, the census data reveals that the largest percentage of individuals with the surname Bessent identify as White, although this number slightly decreased from 72.46 percent in 2000 to 70.34 percent in 2010. Those identifying as Black made up the second largest group, increasing from 22.81 percent to 24.87 percent over the decade. The percentage identifying as Two or more races also increased from 1.53 percent to 2.07 percent. There was a decrease in those identifying as Hispanic, from 2.64 percent to 2.07 percent. The data does not show any individuals with this surname identifying as Asian/Pacific Islander or American Indian and Alaskan Native for both years.

	2000	2010	Change
White	72.46%	70.34%	-2.93%
Black	22.81%	24.87%	9.03%
Two or More Races	1.53%	2.07%	35.29%
Hispanic	2.64%	2.07%	-21.59%
Asian/Pacific Islander	0%	0%	0%
American Indian and Alaskan Native	0%	0%	0%