Benson is an English surname that means "son of Ben" or "son of Benedict", from the medieval given name Benne, a short form of Benedict, "blessed". The 1980s sitcom Benson made it a familiar name on American television, and today it offers a surname route to the nickname Ben. Benson entered the US top 1000 in 2010, dipped to number 645 in 2022 and then jumped to number 279 among boys' names in 2025, its highest rank so far.