Find out how popular the last name Balan is in the United States and learn more about the meaning, history, and race and ethnic origin of people in America who are named Balan.

Balan, like all of the last names we have data for, is identified by the U.S. Census Bureau as a surname which has more than 100 occurrences in the United States in the Decennial Census survey. The most recent statistics we have for the Balan surname is from the 2010 census data.

Popularity of Balan in America

Balan is the 18218th most popular name in America based on the data we have collected from the U.S. Census Bureau.

The Balan surname appeared 1,527 times in the 2010 census and if you were to sample 100,000 people in the United States, approximately 1 people would have the surname Balan.

We can also compare 2010 data for Balan to data from the previous census in 2000. The table below contains all of the statistics for both years in a side-by-side comparison.

The history of the last name Balan

The surname BALAN is believed to have originated in Romania during the medieval period. It is derived from the Romanian word "balan," which means "blond-haired" or "fair-haired." This suggests that the name may have been initially given as a nickname to someone with light-colored hair.

One of the earliest known references to the name BALAN can be found in the Codex Sturdzanus, a 15th-century collection of Romanian laws and documents. This manuscript mentions a certain "Ioanne Balan," who was a landowner in the region of Wallachia during that time.

In the 16th century, the name BALAN appeared in various records of the Principality of Moldavia, which was a historical Romanian state. One notable individual was Gheorghe Balan, a military commander who fought against the Ottoman Empire in the late 1500s.

The BALAN surname can also be traced back to the town of Băleni, located in the present-day county of Galați, Romania. It is possible that some families adopted the name BALAN as a reference to their place of origin or residence in this town.

In the 18th century, a prominent figure with the name BALAN was Petru Balan, a Romanian writer and philosopher who lived from 1730 to 1808. His works contributed significantly to the development of Romanian literature and intellectual thought during the Enlightenment period.

Another notable individual with the surname BALAN was Ion Balan, a Romanian politician and diplomat who served as the Minister of Foreign Affairs in the early 20th century (1906-1909). He was born in 1856 and played a crucial role in shaping Romania's foreign policy during that era.

One of the most famous bearers of the BALAN name was the Romanian novelist and playwright Ion Luca Caragiale (1852-1912), whose mother's maiden name was BALAN. Caragiale is widely regarded as one of the most important figures in Romanian literature and is celebrated for his satirical works that exposed the social and political issues of his time.

In the field of sports, the name BALAN is associated with Gheorghe Balan, a Romanian footballer who played as a forward for various clubs in the 1960s and 1970s. He was a member of the Romanian national team and participated in the 1970 FIFA World Cup.

Race and ethnic origin of people with the last name Balan

We also have some data on the ancestry of people with the surname Balan.

The below race categories are the modified race categories used in the Census Bureau's population estimates program. All people were categorized into six mutually exclusive racial and Hispanic origin groups:

1. White only
2. Black only
3. American Indian and Alaskan Native only
4. Asian and Pacific Islander only
5. Hispanic
6. Two or More Races

For the most recent 2010 census data, the race/ethnic origin breakdown for Balan was:

Note: Any fields showing (S) means the data was suppressed for privacy so that the data does not in any way identify any specific individuals.

Since we have data from the previous census in 2000, we can also compare the values to see how the popularity of Balan has changed in the 10 years between the two census surveys.

Data source

The last name data and ethnic breakdown of last names is sourced directly from the Decennial Census survey, conducted every 10 years by the United States Census Bureau.

The history and meaning of the name Balan was researched and written by our team of onomatology and genealogy experts.

If you have a correction or suggestion to improve the history of Balan, please contact us.

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