Benton is an English surname and place name from the Old English beonet and tun, a "settlement where bent grass grows". It is a distinctly American first name thanks to Missouri senator Thomas Hart Benton and the regionalist painter of the same name, and it offers Ben as a nickname without being Benjamin. Benton sat in the US top 1000 from 2011 to 2018 with a peak of number 821 in 2016 and ranks at number 1623 in 2025.