Balaban Family History
Balaban Name Meaning
Turkish Greek Serbian and Croatian: nickname for a big clumsy man from Turkish balaban ‘tame bear’ figuratively ‘big clumsy man’ which is also a loanword in Serbian and Croatian. In North America this surname may also be a shortened form of some other surnames derived from this word such as Greek Balabanis. Turkish Romanian Ukrainian Belorussian and Jewish (eastern Ashkenazic): nickname or Turkish ornamental and Jewish artificial name from Turkish balaban ‘sparrowhawk’ (also a loanword in Ukrainian etc.) as a nickname perhaps applied to someone thought to resemble a sparrowhawk in some way. It may also be a metonymic occupational name for a falconer.
Source: Dictionary of American Family Names 2nd edition, 2022