I spent every summer of my growing up years in Seaside Heights. My family had a bungalow there and that's how we escaped the city every summer after school finished. I worked on the boardwalk since I was 11 years old until I graduated college. I was called a Benny even from my cousins who grew up down the Jersey shore.
Here is what seems to be the reasons why we are called Bennys. I never heard of shoobie.
Benny (Bayonne, Elizabeth, Newark, New York acronym?)
A visitor to the New Jersey shore is called a "benny." This may come from the "benefit" of New Jersey's shore in the summer. It may also come from the "benjamins" (money) that the visitors bring to the shore.
Most people think that "benny" is an acronym for the luggage tags that the visitors got on the trains that took them to the shore. Supposedly, the tags read "BNENY" or "BENNY" for the towns of Bayonne, Elizabeth, Newark, and New York. Sometimes Bergen and Essex are suggested for the towns in this acronym.
No one knows for sure, but the best summary was given by Ben (not Benny) Zimmer of the American Dialect Society (see below).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benny Benny is a derogatory term used by residents of Jersey Shore towns for tourists that visit each summer. Locals blame bennys for bumper to bumper traffic on the Garden State Parkway and in the shore communities. They think that bennys hog parking spaces and take over sand space. The term 'benny' is used mainly in Monmouth County and Ocean County. In Atlantic County and Cape May County, the term shoobie is mainly used. 'Benny', like 'shoobie', dates from the era just after the Second World War and refers to members of the Jewish working class from New York City and northern New Jersey who invaded the resorts in large enough numbers that their speech patterns and way of dress made them quite noticeable.
While the term is often said to be an acronym for the cities they come from, namely: Bayonne, Elizabeth, Newark, and New York, it is possible that 'benny' comes from Benjamin, a first name once fairly common among members of the Jewish faith (or at least it was presumed to be so).[citation needed] Over time the term came to be applied to daytrippers of all ethnicities. Word-Detective.com claims the "benny" label may trace its origins to a beach umbrella renter whose goods (and his presumably out-of-town customers) were marked with his name--Benny.
"To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
