Balle
surname · Latin script
Recorded for both men and women· direction only, no split published
Balle is a surname written in the Latin script, with more bearers in Denmark than in any other country. Recorded meaning: Various origins: * Borrowed from Dutch Balle, a reduced form of any of various Germanic names beginning with the element *balþaz (“bold”).
- DEGermany≈1 in 88K(inferred from the name graph)
- USUnited States1 in 592K
- DKDenmark1 in 5.1K
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.
- Denmark (measured from records)
- Sources
- 183 (measured from records)
- 1 in 5.1K (inferred from the name graph)
1,142 people
Highest-authority source
Denmark
measured from records inferred from the name graph
Meaning & origin(measured from records)
- DutchBalle(measured from records)
- DanishBalle(measured from records)
- Danish rootballe“slope; hill”(measured from records)
- Danish rootbatlle“mayor”(measured from records)
Various origins: * Borrowed from Dutch Balle, a reduced form of any of various Germanic names beginning with the element *balþaz (“bold”). * Borrowed from Danish Balle, a habitational surname from balle (“slope; hill”). * A respelling of Catalan Batlle, an occupational surname from batlle (“mayor”).
Sources 3
- The Oxford Dictionary of Family Names in Britain and Ireland
- Wiktionary
- Nordic Names
Attested across 24 languages in the etymology graph.
Where in the world(measured from records)
Balle 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 | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| DK Denmark | 1,142 | 1 in 5.1K | 1.1K | Balle | 1 |
| DE Germany | ≈910 est. | ≈1 in 88K | — | Balle | 79 |
| FR France | ≈890 est. | ≈1 in 76K | 95 | — | 1 |
| US United States | 562 | 1 in 592K | 699 | Balle | 183 |
| PH Philippines | ≈440 est. | ≈1 in 246K | — | Balle | 19 |
| UY Uruguay | 158 | 1 in 21K | 158 | — | — |
| NZ New Zealand | ≈120 est. | ≈1 in 41K | — | Balle | 42 |
| NO Norway | 80 | 1 in 68K | 80 | — | 4 |
1,142 people counted by Danmarks Statistik — Hvor mange hedder...? (living-population name counts). 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; Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2020; Danmarks Statistik — Hvor mange hedder...? (living-population name counts); INE Uruguay — Apellidos más frecuentes 1902–2024 (Tableau Public); INSEE — Fichier des noms de famille (1891–2000); SSB — Navnesøk (name-search service, living population). 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)
Balle is also recorded in 6 other lexicons, as a different name or as an ordinary word. These are senses of the spelling, not of the name above.
In Latvian, ball (old-fashioned spacious, luxurious dancing party)
as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
In Swedish, definite natural masculine singular of ball
as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
In Dutch, singular present subjunctive of ballen
as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
In frm, ball (spherical object used in games)
as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
In enm, alternative form of bal
as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
In se, inflection of ballat:
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)
- Nicolai Edinger Balleb. 1744DKDanish university teacher (1744-1816)
- Marie Lassenb. 1864DKnot in their usual nameDanish politician
- Arthur Balleb. 1878BEWalloon-language water and lexicologist
- Mogens Balleb. 1921DKDanish painter (1921-1988)
- Theo Balleb. 1925DEGerman politician (1925-2015)
- Grete Balleb. 1926DKDanish painter
- Inge Skovgaard-Petersenb. 1932DKnot in their usual nameDanish historian
- Francis Balleb. 1939FRFrench media scholar
- Solvej Balleb. 1962DKDanish poet, writer, and translator (born 1962)
- Søren Balleb. 1978DKDanish film director
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 32 sources across 17 countries.
| Country | Register | Year | Count | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| DK Denmark | Danmarks Statistik — Hvor mange hedder...? (living-population name counts) | — | 1.1K | #339 |
| US United States | Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2020 | 2020 | 699 | #34,822 |
| US United States | Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2000 | 2000 | 608 | #35,106 |
| US United States | Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2010 | 2010 | 562 | #39,164 |
| UY Uruguay | INE Uruguay — Apellidos más frecuentes 1902–2024 (Tableau Public) | — | 158 | — |
| FR France | INSEE — Fichier des noms de famille (1891–2000) | 1961 | 149 | — |
| FR France | INSEE — Fichier des noms de famille (1891–2000) | 1941 | 142 | — |
| FR France | INSEE — Fichier des noms de famille (1891–2000) | 1951 | 138 | — |
| FR France | INSEE — Fichier des noms de famille (1891–2000) | 1981 | 130 | — |
| FR France | INSEE — Fichier des noms de famille (1891–2000) | 1971 | 129 | — |
| FR France | INSEE — Fichier des noms de famille (1891–2000) | 1921 | 123 | — |
| FR France | INSEE — Fichier des noms de famille (1891–2000) | 1931 | 107 | — |
Reference works 7
- The Oxford Dictionary of Family Names in Britain and Ireland
- Nederlandse FamilienamenBank (Dutch surname bank; ex-Meertens Instituut, now CBG)2007
- Wikipedia surname tokens
- Wikidata name items (native-script + romanized given/family names)
- Rymut, Słownik nazwisk współcześnie w Polsce używanych (10 vols, IJP PAN, Kraków 1992–1994) — every Polish surname in the PESEL register at the end of 1990, with bearer counts nationally and per voivodeship1990
- jeantosti.com — Dictionnaire des noms de famille de France et d'ailleurs (Jean Tosti)
- Søndergaard, Georg, Danske efternavne (Lademann 1984/1991)
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 Balle mean, and where does it come from?
- Various origins: * Borrowed from Dutch Balle, a reduced form of any of various Germanic names beginning with the element *balþaz (“bold”). Recorded by The Oxford Dictionary of Family Names in Britain and Ireland and Wiktionary and 1 other source.
- What are other forms of the name Balle?
- In the etymology graph, Ball and Ballen are forms of the same name in other languages.
- In which country does Balle have the most bearers?
- In Denmark, the national register counted about 1.1 thousand people named Balle, more than in any other country we hold, where it is most often spelled balle.
- Where is Balle most common?
- Balle is densest in Denmark, where the national register counts about 1 in 5.1 thousand people carrying it.
- How common is the name Balle?
- In Denmark, the national register counted 1,142 people named Balle, about 1 in 5.1 thousand residents.
What do you want to know about Balle?
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/balleThe 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, “Balle”. Data snapshot 2026-10-10.