# Balsam (surname)

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

A surname from German.

| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Origin | German |
| Type | occupational, named after the work an ancestor did |
| People in the US (2010 Census) | 651 |
| US rank (2010) | 34,707 of 162,253 |
| How often | about 1 in every 474,263 people |
| Change since 2000 | +9.8% (593 in 2000) |
| Pronunciation | not recorded |
| Variant spellings | none recorded |

## Etymology

Borrowed from German Balsam, an occupational surname for a seller of perfumes. It could also be an English habitational surname, from Balsham, in Cambridgeshire.

## Who carries it

Share of people named Balsam 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) | 98% |
| Hispanic or Latino (any race) | 1.5% |
| Asian and Pacific Islander | 0.0% |
| American Indian and Alaska Native | 0.0% |

## Where

Wikidata records people named Balsam in the United States.

## People named Balsam

- Martin Balsam, American actor (1919–1996)
- Talia Balsam, American TV and film actress

## Similar surnames

Balsamo, Balcom, Blasingame, Balzano, Blackmon, Blackman, Blessing, Blakeney, Blackmore, Blakemore, Blakeman, Belknap.

## 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.