# Bentley (surname)

Source: https://namelineage.com/surname/bentley/  
Publisher: Name Lineage. Counts from the US Census Bureau; origin and etymology from Wiktionary; bearers from Wikidata. Data updated 2026-11-11.

An English habitational surname from Old English.

| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Origin | English |
| Type | place, taken from where an ancestor lived or came from |
| People in the US (2010 Census) | 40,193 |
| US rank (2010) | 862 of 162,253 |
| How often | about 1 in every 7,682 people |
| Change since 2000 | +3.8% (38,714 in 2000) |
| Pronunciation | /ˈbɛntliː/, 2 syllables |
| Variant spellings | Bently |

## Etymology

From Old English Beonetlēah. Originally a Sussex habitational name, the word lēah or lēag meaning field in Old English. Hence, equivalent to bent (“bent-grass”) + -leigh/lea (“meadow, field”); compare Bentham.

## Who carries it

Share of people named Bentley in the 2010 US Census by the Census's own race and ethnicity groups. The Census suppresses a share when the count behind it is small.

| Group | Share |
|---|---|
| White (not Hispanic) | 82% |
| Black (not Hispanic) | 12% |
| Hispanic or Latino (any race) | 2.3% |
| Asian and Pacific Islander | 0.5% |
| American Indian and Alaska Native | 0.5% |
| Two or more races | 1.9% |

## Similar surnames

Bendel, Buentello.

## How to read these numbers

A Census count is people alive and counted in 2010, not births, and names occurring fewer than 100 times are not published at all. Ethnicity shares are the Census's own categories.