Family name origins & meanings
- Hungarian : from a short form of Ballabás, variant of the personal name Barnabás (see Barnaby).
- Italian : from balla, which in its earliest sense meant ‘dance’ but from the 14th century was used to denote ‘goods packed for transport’, ‘bale’, ‘bundle (of merchandise)’ and was hence probably a metonymic occupational name for a carrier.