Meaning and background
The story behind Bentley
Bentley is an English place-derived surname that combines Old English beonet, “bent grass”, with lēah, a clearing or woodland. This is a landscape history, not a personality trait. Many British places carry the name, and the surname eventually became a given name too. Some may hear the luxury-car association, but that is a later cultural connection rather than the original etymology.
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About Bentley
Recorded as a dog’s name
Bentley appears in 179 dog licence records in the 2026 New York City dataset.
How to read this count
These records cover New York City and may count the same dog in more than one licence period. They are not a national popularity ranking.
Pronunciation and rhythm
/bɛntli/
US English sound sequence, converted from the CMU dictionary. Stress marks are shown separately.
Stress on the first syllable in the recorded US readings.
View dictionary notation
/bɛntli/ · primary stress on syllable 1B EH1 N T L IY0
These are US dictionary readings. Personal, regional and other language pronunciations may differ.
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Sources and research notes (2)
Gender association: NYC licence-period records. Any dog can use this name.
- New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene NYC Dog Licensing Dataset — extract_year 2026 — Dog licence periods, not unique dogs; NYC only. No owner-level fields retrieved.
- Carnegie Mellon University / CMU Sphinx maintainers CMU US English Pronouncing Dictionary — US English dictionary readings; not owner-specific or exhaustive multilingual pronunciation
References support the individual facts shown. A source link does not mean the entire profile has been verified.