Balani
surname · Latin script
Recorded for both men and women· direction only, no split published
Balani is a surname written in the Latin script, with more bearers in the Philippines than in any other country. Recorded meaning: plural of balanus.
- PHPhilippines≈1 in 37K(inferred from the name graph)
- USUnited States1 in 1.3M
- INIndia1 in 2.1M
carrying the name, as counted by its national register where one exists and as Mondonomo estimates it elsewhere (marked ≈ and "est." on hover). One hue, darker where it is more common; hover a country for its figure.
- Philippines (inferred from the name graph)
- Sources
- 151 (measured from records)
- 1 in 27K (inferred from the name graph)
≈2,900 people, est.
Highest-authority source
St. Kitts & Nevis
measured from records inferred from the name graph
Meaning & origin(measured from records)
plural of balanus
Sources 1
- kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
Attested in 1 language in the etymology graph.
Where in the world(measured from records)
Balani counted together with the spellings and other-language forms grouped with it. Where a register counted another spelling, the row names it.
Sorted by bearers: national registers' counts, and Mondonomo's estimates (≈, est.) where no register counts.
| Country | Most common spelling | Sources | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PH Philippines | ≈2,900 est. | ≈1 in 37K | — | Balani | 39 |
| PK Pakistan | ≈730 est. | ≈1 in 322K | — | Balani | 11 |
| ZA South Africa | ≈700 est. | ≈1 in 81K | — | Balani | 8 |
| IN India | 645 | 1 in 2.1M | 645 | Balani | 114 |
| US United States | 252 | 1 in 1.3M | 333 | Balani | 151 |
| AE United Arab Emirates | ≈150 est. | ≈1 in 69K | — | Balani | 30 |
| HK Hong Kong | ≈79 est. | ≈1 in 91K | — | Balani | 9 |
| KN St. Kitts & Nevis | 2 | 1 in 27K | 2 | — | — |
Exact figures are national registers' own counts, while figures marked ≈ and est. are Mondonomo’s estimates, counted from our sources and calibrated against those registers; hover one for how far to trust it in that country. A dash means neither exists.
Registers cited: Instate — India surnames (clean spellings) from electoral rolls; Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2010; Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2020; St Kitts & Nevis — Register of Electors 2026. Figures without a register are Mondonomo estimates; see Methodology.
Country figures for a list of names, at full precision, are available under licence rather than by scraping this table (how that works).
Other recorded senses(measured from records)
Balani is also recorded in 5 other lexicons, as a different name or as an ordinary word. These are senses of the spelling, not of the name above.
In Latin, inflection of balanus:
as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
In hil, magnet, magnetism
as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
In bgz, black magic
as a wordAustronesian Comparative Dictionary (ACD), CLDF v2.0
In Filipino, magnetism
as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
In Cebuano, strong
as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
Ordered by how much of this spelling's record each language holds, so a sense from a language the name is barely used in sits last rather than first.
Notable people with this name(measured from records)
- Sonia Balanib. 1991INIndian actress and model
The ten people covered by the most Wikipedia language editions — a proxy for cross-cultural notability, which favours historical and Western figures over equally prominent contemporary ones — shown by birth year. Source: Wikidata (CC0).
Evidence(measured from records)
Attested in 20 sources across 10 countries.
| Country | Register | Year | Count | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| IN India | Instate — India surnames (clean spellings) from electoral rolls | — | 645 | #7,600 |
| US United States | Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2020 | 2020 | 333 | #64,521 |
| US United States | Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2010 | 2010 | 252 | #76,275 |
| US United States | Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2000 | 2000 | 184 | #92,601 |
| IN India | Instate — India surnames by state (real counts) from electoral rolls | — | 145 | #2,870 |
| IN India | Instate — India surnames by state (real counts) from electoral rolls | — | 40 | #41,249 |
| IN India | Instate — India surnames by state (real counts) from electoral rolls | — | 3 | #33,051 |
| KN St. Kitts & Nevis | St Kitts & Nevis — Register of Electors 2026 | 2026 | 2 | #180 |
| US United States | wru Name Dictionary — US surnames, Census 2010 subset (Khanna et al.) | — | — | — |
Reference works 2
- Nederlandse FamilienamenBank (Dutch surname bank; ex-Meertens Instituut, now CBG)2007
- Wikidata name items (native-script + romanized given/family names)
These works list the name; their figures are licensed and are not reproduced here.
Register rows as of the 2026-10-09 data build.
Frequently asked questions
- What does the name Balani mean, and where does it come from?
- plural of balanus Recorded by kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations).
- In which country does Balani have the most bearers?
- Mondonomo estimates about 2.9 thousand people named Balani in the Philippines, more than in any other country we hold, where it is most often spelled balani.
- Where is Balani most common?
- Measured as a share of residents rather than as a count, Balani is densest in St. Kitts & Nevis — about 1 in 27 thousand people — even though Philippines holds more of our records for it.
- How common is the name Balani?
- In India, the national register counted 645 people named Balani, about 1 in 2.1 million residents.
What do you want to know about Balani?
Nobody replies to these one by one, but what readers ask decides what these pages answer next.
Query this name via API
curl https://api.mondonomo.ai/api/v1/name-graph/balaniThe same payload this page is built from: spellings and scripts, countries and languages, related names, and the registers that attest the form. Rate-limited for casual use; a free API key gives 1,000 requests a day, and bulk access is licensed separately.
About this data
measured from records inferred from the name graph machine-generated
These figures come from the data snapshot of and will change as it is rebuilt.
Statistics are aggregated from the Mondonomo name corpus; related names and etymology are inferred from the name graph; pronunciation and any machine-marked transliterations are model-generated. Read how the numbers are made, including their known failure modes, and where the data comes from.
Reference works we consult — surname dictionaries, official name registers, Wikidata and Wiktionary — are named directly, beside the claims they support. The per-country source counts also include datasets of person records: we publish how many there are and their authority tier, but not their names.
Cite this page Mondonomo, “Balani”. Data snapshot 2026-10-10.