Family name origins & meanings
- Italian : occupational name from balestriere ‘crossbowman’, ‘crossbow maker’, from Latin ballistarius ‘catapult maker’ (see Balestra). De Felice notes that the -ieri suffix shows the influence of Old French balestrier ‘crossbowman’, owing to the importance of these troops in the Angevin militias in southern Italy in the 13th and 14th centuries.