San Benito County is a county located in the Coast Range Mountains of the U.S. state of California, south of San Jose. As of 2000 the population was 53,234. The county seat is Hollister, which includes nearly two-thirds of the county's population. El Camino Real passes through the county and includes one mission in San Juan Bautista. The county is named after the San Benito Valley. Father Juan Crespí, in his expedition in 1772, named a small river in honor of San Benedicto (Saint Benedict), the patron saint of the married, and it is from the contraction of this name that the county took its name.