Balian
surname · Latin script
Meaning: A Balinese shaman or traditional healer
Recorded for both men and women· direction only, no split published
/ˈbeɪɫiən/(machine-generated) pronunciation, model-generated
Balian is a surname written in the Latin script, with more bearers in the United States than in any other country.
- USUnited States1 in 384K(measured from records)
- UYUruguay1 in 31K
- LBLebanon≈1 in 119K
carrying the name, as counted by its national register where one exists and as Mondonomo estimates it elsewhere (marked ≈ and "est." on hover). Where a country counts another spelling of the name rather than Balian itself, the figure is that spelling’s, and it is named. One hue, darker where it is more common; hover a country for its figure.
- United States (measured from records)
- 2 (measured from records)
- Sources
- 202 (measured from records)
- 1 in 31K (inferred from the name graph)
867 people, 2010
recorded for this name
Highest-authority source
Uruguay
measured from records inferred from the name graph
Spellings & scripts(measured from records)
Spellings marked ● are how people bearing the name write it in our records, and ○ marks a model's transliteration; click a spelling to open its page.
Meaning & origin(measured from records)
A Balinese shaman or traditional healer.
Sources 1
- kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
Where in the world(measured from records)
Balian 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 | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| US United States | 867 | 1 in 384K | 867 | Balian | 202 |
| FR France | ≈400 est. | ≈1 in 169K | 36 | — | 2 |
| PH Philippines | ≈310 est. | ≈1 in 356K | — | Balian | 12 |
| EG Egypt | ≈270 est. | ≈1 in 388K | — | Balian | 10 |
| AR Argentina | 190 | 1 in 239K | 190 | — | — |
| CA Canada | ≈180 est. | ≈1 in 211K | — | Balian | 37 |
| GE Georgia | 160as ბალიან | 1 in 25K | 160 | Balian | 3 |
| UY Uruguay | 111 | 1 in 31K | 111 | — | — |
| LB Lebanon | ≈46 est. | ≈1 in 119K | — | Balian | 13 |
867 people counted by Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2010, 2010. 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: Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2010; RENAPER — Apellidos (person counts, national); Georgia PSDA/SDA civil-registry name statistics (per-token API); INE Uruguay — Apellidos más frecuentes 1902–2024 (Tableau Public); INSEE — Fichier des noms de famille (1891–2000). 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)
Balian 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 nij, all ceremonies in which the _balian_ (shamaness and ritual prostitute) plays a role; the shamaness herself
as a wordAustronesian Comparative Dictionary (ACD), CLDF v2.0
In poz-wmp-pro, shaman (probably a transvestite or hermaphrodite), shamaness; shamanistic ceremony
as a wordAustronesian Comparative Dictionary (ACD), CLDF v2.0
In syb, men and women who perform ceremonies in honor of the gods
as a wordAustronesian Comparative Dictionary (ACD), CLDF v2.0
In ban, shaman, healer (many named varieties)
as a wordAustronesian Comparative Dictionary (ACD), CLDF v2.0
In Filipino, to suffer a fracture (of one's bone)
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)
- Marie Balianb. 1925ILArmenian ceramic artist (1925–2017)
- Roger Balianb. 1933FRFrench physicist
- Pierre Balianb. 1983USfigure skater
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).
How to address them(machine-generated)
Evidence(measured from records)
Attested in 34 sources across 17 countries.
| Country | Register | Year | Count | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| US United States | Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2010 | 2010 | 867 | #27,732 |
| US United States | Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2020 | 2020 | 816 | #30,610 |
| US United States | Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2000 | 2000 | 787 | #28,522 |
| AR Argentina | RENAPER — Apellidos (person counts, national) | — | 190 | — |
| UY Uruguay | INE Uruguay — Apellidos más frecuentes 1902–2024 (Tableau Public) | — | 111 | — |
| FR France | INSEE — Fichier des noms de famille (1891–2000) | 1931 | 74 | — |
| FR France | INSEE — Fichier des noms de famille (1891–2000) | 1961 | 54 | — |
| FR France | INSEE — Fichier des noms de famille (1891–2000) | 1951 | 51 | — |
| FR France | INSEE — Fichier des noms de famille (1891–2000) | 1921 | 51 | — |
| FR France | INSEE — Fichier des noms de famille (1891–2000) | 1981 | 49 | — |
| FR France | INSEE — Fichier des noms de famille (1891–2000) | 1941 | 49 | — |
| FR France | INSEE — Fichier des noms de famille (1891–2000) | 1971 | 40 | — |
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
- How do you pronounce Balian?
- A machine transcription gives /ˈbeɪɫiən/ (IPA) for English.
- What does the name Balian mean, and where does it come from?
- A Balinese shaman or traditional healer. Recorded by kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations).
- In which country does Balian have the most bearers?
- In the United States, the national register counted about 867 people named Balian, more than in any other country we hold, where it is most often spelled balian.
- Where is Balian most common?
- Measured as a share of residents rather than as a count, Balian is densest in Uruguay — about 1 in 31 thousand people — even though United States holds more of our records for it.
- How common is the name Balian?
- In the United States, the national register counted 867 people named Balian in 2010, about 1 in 384 thousand residents.
What do you want to know about Balian?
Nobody replies to these one by one, but what readers ask decides what these pages answer next.
Query this name via API
curl -H "X-API-Key: YOUR_KEY" https://api.mondonomo.ai/api/v1/name-graph/balianThe payload this page is built from: spellings and scripts, countries and languages, related names, and the registers that attest the form. It takes a free API key (1,000 requests a day), which returns what this page shows everyone; the full country table, every register citation and the year-by-year series come with a licensed key, as does bulk access.
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, “Balian”. Data snapshot 2026-10-10.