Genesis 46:21 names him as one of the sons of Bin-Yamin, but I am going to suggest that this is an oversight by the writer: Bin-Yamin was Ya'akov's name for his second son with Rachel, but she named him Ben-Oni, and really Mupim should be described as a son of Ben-Oni. I will explain why in a moment.
Gesenius suggests that the name is a misreading for Shephupham (שפופם); this is deduced from the list of Bin-Yamin's sons in Numbers 26, where Mupim does not appear, but Shephupham does. Shephupham itself appears in varied form as Shephuphan (שְׁפוּפָן) in 1 Chronicles 8:5 and the only conceivable etymology of either form is Shephiphon, which is an Egyptian word, equivalent to the Yehudit Nachash (נחש) and meaning "a serpent" in the sense of an oracular beast, linked to the moon-goddess.
Who then were the Mupim? Moph (מף) was the Mitsri (Egyptian) name for Memphis, the City of the Dead in Egypt, where the sepulchre of Osher (Osiris) was situated. Effectively the capital of Egypt, and alongside On (Heliopolis) one of the two centres of its religion. Heliopolis, as its Greekified name suggests, was the sun-capital; Memphis, as the tomb of Osher suggests, the moon-capital. Given that the serpent cult was associated with the moon-cult, the substitution of Shephupham for Mupim makes perfectly good sense.
The above also helps to confirm the view that Bin-Oni was himself an Egyptian, and that his mother's name for him, Ben-Oni, was his correct name, Ben-Yamin (son of the right hand; i.e. heir apparent) merely his Jacobite title - though quite probably an entirely different people, the Bene Jamun, settled in the same area, and the tribe grew out of both of them. Ben-Oni means "son of Heliopolis", though the Tanach avoids that by having Rachel explain his name as "the son of my affliction" when he is born (Genesis 35).
The above also helps to confirm the view that Bin-Oni was himself an Egyptian, and that his mother's name for him, Ben-Oni, was his correct name, Ben-Yamin (son of the right hand; i.e. heir apparent) merely his Jacobite title - though quite probably an entirely different people, the Bene Jamun, settled in the same area, and the tribe grew out of both of them. Ben-Oni means "son of Heliopolis", though the Tanach avoids that by having Rachel explain his name as "the son of my affliction" when he is born (Genesis 35).
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