Balthazar
Of Aramaic origin meaning "Lord of treasure" or "Baal's prince".
Name Census estimates that about 208 living Americans carry the first name Balthazar. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Balthazar today is around 11 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Balthazar births was 2014 (15 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Balthazar. Below you will find a gender breakdown showing how the name splits between male and female registrations, a year-by-year popularity chart stretching back to 1880, decade-level totals, the top US states for this name, its meaning and etymology, and a set of frequently asked questions with data-backed answers.
People living today
208
~ 1 in 1,647,857 Americans
Peak year
2014
15 babies that year
Average age
11
years old
2024 SSA rank
#7,796
Tracked since 2001
Popularity
Balthazar: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Balthazar from the 2000s through to the 2020s, spanning 3 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 111 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Balthazar remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Balthazar by decade
The table below breaks the full SSA timeline into ten-year windows. Each row shows how many male and female babies were given the name Balthazar during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Balthazars live
Origin
Meaning and history of Balthazar
The name Balthazar has its origins in Aramaic, an ancient Semitic language spoken in the Middle East. It is derived from the Babylonian name Bel-shar-usur, which means "Bel (the god) protect the king". The name was popular among the Babylonians during the 6th-7th centuries BC.
In the Bible, Balthazar was one of the three wise men or Magi who brought gifts to the infant Jesus in Bethlehem. This reference in the New Testament contributed to the spread and popularity of the name among early Christians.
One of the earliest recorded bearers of the name was Balthazar Gérard, a Catholic fanatic who assassinated William the Silent, Prince of Orange, in 1584. The name gained further prominence in the 17th century with Balthasar Gracián, a Spanish Jesuit priest and philosopher who wrote influential works on ethics and rhetoric.
In the 18th century, Balthazar Denner was a renowned German painter known for his highly realistic portraits. Another notable figure was Balthazar Bekker, a Dutch minister and writer who challenged the belief in witchcraft and possession in his works.
The 19th century saw Balthazar Siemiątkowski, a Polish general who fought in the Napoleonic Wars, and Balthazar Goldstein, a Polish-German chess master and one of the strongest players of his time.
More recently, Balthazar Getty was an American actor and member of the Getty family, known for his roles in films like Lord of the Flies and Lost Highway. Balthazar Bratt was also the name of a fictional villain in the Despicable Me animated film series.
Notable bearers
Famous people named Balthazar
People
Balthazar + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Balthazar as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with B
Other first names starting with B with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Balthazar: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Balthazar?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 208 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Balthazar going back to 1880 and adjusting each cohort for expected survival using CDC actuarial life tables. The result is an age-weighted living-bearer count, not a raw birth total. That works out to about 1 in 1,647,857 US residents.
Is Balthazar a common name?
We classify Balthazar as "Very Rare". It ranks above 74.7% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 210 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Balthazar most popular?
The single biggest year for Balthazar was 2014, when 15 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Balthazar is about 11 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
Is Balthazar a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Balthazar in the SSA data are male. You can see the full per-sex comparison in the gender distribution section above, which includes the latest year rank, birth count, and peak year for each sex.
Where does this data come from?
First-name figures come from the Social Security Administration's national baby name files, which cover every name on a birth certificate from 1880 to 2024. Living-bearer estimates layer in CDC actuarial life tables broken out by sex to account for mortality. The population baseline (342,754,338) is the Census Bureau's latest national estimate. You can read the full calculation on our methodology page.