MEANING & HISTORY
What does Balthazar mean?
Balthazar is a variant in the Belshazzar family. The Akkadian source Bel-sharra-usur is a sentence asking Bel to protect the king.
Later Christian tradition assigned Balthazar to one of the Magi, although that traditional identification is separate from the ancient Babylonian word formation. The name thus combines a clear older theophoric sentence with a later Christian association. It is not literally a word meaning one of the three kings.
References for this explanation
Pronunciation & syllables
Dictionary readings are kept by language. Select the reading that matches your intended pronunciation. Dots show the source’s written divisions; they are not a universal syllable count across languages.
Wiktionary contributors / Kaikki / Wiktextract · CC BY-SA 4.0
Origin and name formation
Language-specific accounts from the dictionary. A shared spelling can have more than one history.
EnglishEtymology & source
From Middle English Balthasar, from Latin Baltassar, from Ancient Greek Βαλτάσαρ (Baltásar), from Hebrew בֵּלְשַׁאצַּר (bēlšaṣṣar), attested in the Tanakh and the Old Testament (Daniel 5:1), from Akkadian 𒁹𒀭𒂗𒈗𒋀 (Bēl-šarra-uṣṣur, literally “May Bel protect the king”). Doublet of Belshazzar.
A male given name from Old Persian.
Wiktionary: Balthazar (English) ↗ · Contributors · CC BY-SA 4.0
Adapted from Wiktionary contributors via Kaikki/Wiktextract. Source accounts remain in their original English; editorial summaries and filters are adapted. Attribution and downloads
People with the name Balthazar
Public figures and other documented namesakes linked by an explicit given-name claim. This is a selection of records, not a popularity ranking.
DOCUMENTED NAMESAKE
Baltazar Aquino
The record establishes the name association, not the person’s intended meaning, pronunciation or ancestry. Descriptions are attributed to Wikidata contributors (CC0).
Use in Philippine-linked records
Wikidata
1
distinct person records with an explicit given-name claim
Community-edited coverage, not a census or birth registry. Examples: Baltazar Aquino
PSA · OFFICIAL BIRTH RECORDS
Balthazar in the birth records
Exact spelling and stated year in the published name tables. Read the counts as individual snapshots.
Tables included: 2016, 2017, 2018, 2020, 2022, 2023 and 2024. The 2016 fact sheet lists five names per sex; the later tables include ten. Missing counts are not inferred. Sex categories follow the official tables, independently of dictionary gender labels. Explore the official tables →
Similar names to Balthazar
Names with a similar opening or ending, ordered by spelling distance. Similar spelling does not imply the same meaning or origin.
Names in this collection
- Baltazar·Bel, protect the king
- Bahadir♂Brave or heroic, from Turkish Bahadır
- Eleazar·God has helped
- Balangaw·Rainbow
- Barbara♀Foreign or unfamiliar
- Baldomero♂Bold or brave, and famous
- Baldwin♂Bold friend
- Balet♀Familiar form of Valeriana or Valentina
What rhymes with Balthazar?
No dictionary-confirmed rhyme match is available for this spelling in the current catalogue.
Explore Balthazar further
Follow the sources
- Wikidata given-name item Q945725 — Balthazar (opens in a new tab)
Given-name identity, native labels, language associations and explicit class where present; not lexical meaning or population frequency.
- Wikidata — Baltazar Aquino (opens in a new tab)
Explicit given-name claim P735 linking to Q945725 and citizenship claim P27 linking to Philippines Q928; community-edited evidence, not a civil-registry record.
- Wiktionary contributors — Balthazar (English) (opens in a new tab)
Language-specific given-name etymology; shared spelling does not prove every bearer has this origin.
- Behind the Name — Balthazar (opens in a new tab)
Consulted account of the name’s formation, relevant root elements, or explicitly linked base name.
- Behind the Name — Belshazzar (opens in a new tab)
Consulted account of the name’s formation, relevant root elements, or explicitly linked base name.