Bent
A surname most often taken from a place on a bend, curve, or open bent of land.
The #7,001 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 64,524 Americans shares it.
Etymology
This surname is usually explained from Middle English bent, meaning an open plain, common, or moor, and also from the related sense of a bend or curve in the landscape. In surname use, it would have identified someone who lived near such a place. Some older writers also connected it with residence by a bend in a river or valley, which fits the same broad local sense.
History
The name appears in English records in medieval and early modern forms such as de la Bende and Bent. It is especially associated in older surname books with England, including Shropshire, Leicestershire, and other parts of the country. In later centuries it also established itself in North America, where it remains uncommon but steady.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
The related surname Bentham was once explained by one writer as a place-name form involving Bent, though he also noted a fanciful family claim of descent from German counts of Bentheim.
From the historical record
“and Sussex. BENT. An open plain, common, or moor. See Eng. Surn. i. Gi. BENTHALL. A parish in Shropshire. BENTHA]\I. There is not much reason to doubt that this name is derived from the parish of Benthaui, in the West Ridhag of Yorkshire. Jeremy Bentham, however, fancied himself descended from the German Counts of…”
— Patronymica Britannica: a dictionary of the family names of the United KingdomNotable people named Bent
- Darren Bent (b. 1984)
Sourced from Wikidata; linked to their Wikipedia page.