Ben Family History

Native American (mainly Navajo) and African American: adoption of the English personal name Ben (short form of Benjamin) as a surname. Italian (also Del Ben): from a dialect form of the adverb bene ‘well’. This form without the preposition is found only in Belluno province, in particular in Taibon Agordino.

Indian (Gujarat): from Gujarati ben ‘sister’ from Sanskrit bhaginī a title often attached to their personal name by Gujarati women. It is not a true surname but is sometimes used as a surname by women who do not have a surname.

Muslim: abstracted as a surname from Arabic ben ‘son of’ from ibn ‘son’. This word was used especially during the medieval period to form patronymics that then came to function like a surname.

Chinese: Mandarin form of the surname 賁 meaning ‘rush’ in Chinese: (i) said to be traced back to the personal name Xian Ben Fu (縣賁父), a carriage drive during the reign of Duke Zhuang of Lu (706–662 BC).

(ii) from the second element of Hu Ben (虎賁) the name of an official post in charge of guarding the king or the royal palace. (iii) from the first element of Ben Hun (賁渾) the name of a branch minority ethnic group in ancient western China.