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Updated June 9, 2019

Family name origins & meanings

  • Jewish (Ashkenazic) : ornamental name from German Balsam or Yiddish balzam ‘balm’, ‘balsam’.
  • German : occupational name for a seller of spices and perfumes, from Latin balsamum ‘balsam’, ‘aromatic resin’.
  • German : variant of Balsel (see Baltzell).
  • English : habitational name from Balsham in Cambridgeshire, named with an Old English personal name, Bæll(i), + hām ‘homestead’, ‘village’, or Balstone in Devon.

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