# Balke (surname)

Source: https://namelineage.com/surname/balke/  
Publisher: Name Lineage. Counts from the US Census Bureau; origin and etymology from Wiktionary; bearers from Wikidata. Data updated 2026-11-11.

A surname.

| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Origin | not recorded |
| Type | not recorded |
| People in the US (2010 Census) | 2,196 |
| US rank (2010) | 13,775 of 162,253 |
| How often | about 1 in every 140,595 people |
| Change since 2000 | +59% (1,380 in 2000) |
| Pronunciation | not recorded |
| Variant spellings | none recorded |

## Etymology

* As a German surname, from Balken (“beam”). Also a spelling variant of Balk. * As a Norwegian surname, from Old Norse balkr (“beam”), a doublet of the above.

## Who carries it

Share of people named Balke in the 2010 US Census by the Census's own race and ethnicity groups. The Census suppresses a share when the count behind it is small.

| Group | Share |
|---|---|
| White (not Hispanic) | 82% |
| Black (not Hispanic) | 8.7% |
| Hispanic or Latino (any race) | 5.4% |
| Asian and Pacific Islander | 2.9% |

## Similar surnames

Blake, Blakey, Balk, Bialek, Bales, Bayless, Bailes, Bayles, Balleza, Ballweg, Black, Bullock.

## How to read these numbers

A Census count is people alive and counted in 2010, not births, and names occurring fewer than 100 times are not published at all. Ethnicity shares are the Census's own categories.