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

Balzer, 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 Balzer surname is from the 2010 census data.

Popularity of Balzer in America

Balzer is the 11073rd most popular name in America based on the data we have collected from the U.S. Census Bureau.

The Balzer surname appeared 2,869 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 Balzer.

We can also compare 2010 data for Balzer 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 Balzer

The surname Balzer is of German origin, derived from the medieval given name Baltzar, which is a variant of the name Balthasar. The name Balthasar is ultimately derived from the Babylonian name Bel-shar-usur, meaning "Bel (a Babylonian god) protect the king." This name was borne by one of the three Magi who visited the infant Jesus, according to the biblical account.

The earliest recorded instances of the surname Balzer can be found in various German records dating back to the 13th century. One of the earliest known bearers of the name was Balzer von Kreutzburg, a nobleman from the region of Saxony-Anhalt, who lived in the late 14th century.

In the 15th century, the surname Balzer appeared in the town records of Nürnberg (Nuremberg), a city in the northern Bavarian region of Germany. For instance, a certain Hans Balzer was listed as a taxpayer in the city's records in 1487.

During the 16th and 17th centuries, the name Balzer was particularly prevalent in the German states of Saxony, Thuringia, and Brandenburg. Notable individuals bearing this surname include Johann Balzer (1738-1799), a German mathematician and astronomer, and Christian Gottlieb Balzer (1794-1831), a German jurist and legal scholar.

In the 18th century, the surname Balzer also gained a foothold in other parts of Europe, including Austria and Switzerland. One notable bearer of the name from this period was Franz Balzer (1768-1853), an Austrian composer and violinist who was active in Vienna during the early 19th century.

As Germans emigrated to various parts of the world, the surname Balzer spread to other countries, including the United States, Canada, and Australia. One of the earliest recorded instances of the name in America is that of Johann Balzer, a German immigrant who settled in Pennsylvania in the mid-18th century.

Overall, the surname Balzer has a rich history that can be traced back to medieval Germany, and it has been borne by numerous notable individuals throughout the centuries, including academics, musicians, and legal scholars.

Race and ethnic origin of people with the last name Balzer

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

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 Balzer 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 Balzer 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 Balzer was researched and written by our team of onomatology and genealogy experts.

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

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