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Updated June 9, 2019

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’.

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