A male name. (Latin Benedictus, French Benoît, Italian Benedetto, Spanish Benito). Latin benedictus ‘blessed’, the name of St Benedict, the founder of the Benedictine Order (490-c. 542). It is not found as a christian name in England before the Conquest, but it soon afterwards became common, and a measure of its popularity is to be found in the number of common surnames derived from it, such as Benn, Benson, Bennet, Bennett, as well as the rarer Benedict. The usual form of the name from the 12th to the 18th C (e.g. Dr. Johnson’s friend Bennet Langton) was Bennet from the Old French Beneoit, Benoit, Benoist, and Promptorium Parvulorum gives Benet and English Register of Godstow Nunnery, c. 1450 (E.E.T.S. 129-30) Bennet as the English form of Benedict. There is also some evidence for an English form Benedick, derived directly from the Latin, e.g. the surnames Benedick, Bendixson, and Shakespeare’s Benedick in Much Ado about Nothing. In modern times Bennet has fallen out of general use but Benedict is occasionally met with, especially among Roman Catholics.

Benedictus Curia Regis Rolls 1167, Hundred Rolls 1273, Poll Tax of West Riding of Yorkshire 1379 1379. Benedict or Benett Hundred Rolls 1273. Beneyt Hundred Rolls 1273. Benedicus Hundred Rolls 1273.