Family name origins & meanings
- English and Scottish : occupational name for a seller of spices and perfumes, from an agent derivative of Middle English, Old French basme, balme, ba(u)me ‘balm’, ‘ointment’ (Latin balsamum ‘aromatic resin’).
- South German and Swiss German : habitational name from any of the places in Switzerland and Baden called Balm, which almost certainly get their names from a Celtic word meaning ‘cave’.
- German : from the Germanic personal name Baldemar, composed of the elements bald ‘bold’ + mar ‘famous’.