From the Hebrew name בְּנָיָהוּ (Benayahu) coming from the verb בנה (bana) “to build” and יה (yah), the abbreviated name of the LORD. So it means “YHWH built.” This is the name of numerous characters in the Old Testament.

The name Benaiah (or actually, more often written בניהו, Benaiahu) is among the most popular in the Bible. There are at least twelve different individuals with this name. Undoubtedly the best known of these is Benaiah, the son of Jehoiada of Kabzeel (2Samuel 23:20), who begins as a sub-military commander under King David (2Samuel 8:18), but rises to prominence by killing the two sons of Ariel of Moab, and killing a lion in a pit on a snowy day, and an Egyptian with his own spear that he wrenches out of his hand (2Samuel 23:20-21). After that, whenever David, or his son and successor Solomon, need some killing, all they have to do is whistle for Benaiah. In quick succession Benaiah kills Adonijah son of Haggith (1 Kings 2:5), General Joab (2:34), and Shimei son of Gera of Benjamin (2:46).

The other Benaiahs in the Bible are:

A Pirathonite and powerful man of David (2Samuel 23:30).
A head of the household of Simeon (1Chronicles 4:36).
A Levite guardian of the second degree (1Chronicles 15:, 8).
A Levite trumpeter (1Chronicles 15:, 24) who may probably be the same as the trumpeter mentioned in 16:, 6.
A descendant of Asaph and the grandfather of the prophet Jahaziel (2Chronicles 20:, 14).
An overseer in the service of King Hezekiah (2Chronicles 31:13).
Pelatiah’s father, whom the prophet Ezekiel sees in a vision (Ezekiel 11:1-13).
And four different men who had married and probably divorced their foreign wives during Ezra’s purification: a son of Parosh (Ezra 10:25), a son of Pahath-moab (10:30), a son of Bani (10:35), and a son of Nebo (10:43).