Family name origins & meanings
- Jewish (Ashkenazic) : ornamental name from German Balsam or Yiddish balzam ‘balm’, ‘balsam’.
- German : occupational name for a seller of spices and perfumes, from Latin balsamum ‘balsam’, ‘aromatic resin’.
- German : variant of Balsel (see Baltzell).
- English : habitational name from Balsham in Cambridgeshire, named with an Old English personal name, Bæll(i), + hām ‘homestead’, ‘village’, or Balstone in Devon.