Balthazar (given name)

Balthazar (also spelled Balthasar, Balthassar, or Baltazar), from Akkadian 𒂗𒈗𒋀 Bel-shar-uzur, meaning "Bel protects the King" is the name commonly attributed to Balthazar (magus), one of the Three Wise Men, at least in the west. Though no names are given in the Gospel of Matthew, this was one of the names the Western church settled on in the 8th century, based on the original meaning, though other names were used by Eastern churches. It is an alternate form of the Babylonian king Belshazzar, mentioned in the Book of Daniel.

People with the name

Balthazar Alvarez (1533–1580), Spanish Catholic mystic
Balthasar Bekker (1634–1698), Dutch philosopher
Baltasar Brum (1883–1933), Uruguayan president
Baldassare Castiglione (1478–1529), Italian Renaissance author
Baltasar Corrada del Río (1935–2018), Puerto Rican politician
Balthasar Eggenberger (died 1493), Austrian entrepreneur and financier in the Holy Roman Empire
Baltasar Garzón (born 1955), Spanish judge
Balthasar Gérard (c. 1557-1584), assassin of William I of Orange
Balthazar Getty (born 1975), American actor and great grandson of J. Paul Getty
Balthasar Glättli (born 1972), Swiss politician
Baltasar Gracián y Morales (1601–1658), Spanish Baroque prose writer
Balthasar Hubmaier (c. 1480-1528), German Anabaptist leader
Balthazar Klossowski de Rola (1908–2001), birth name of twentieth-century artist Balthus
Baltasar Lopes da Silva (1907-1989), Cape Verdean writer
Balthazar P. Melick (1770–1835), founder of Chemical Bank
Baltazar Maria de Morais Júnior (born 1959), Brazilian footballer
Balthasar Ferdinand Moll (1717–1785), Baroque sculptor
Balthasar de Monconys (1611–1665), French magistrate
Balthasar Moncornet (c. 1600–1668), French engraver
Balthasar Neumann (1687–1753) German engineer and architect
Balthasar Oomkens von Esens (died 1540), 16th century Frisian rebel (two of whose brothers were named Caspar and Melchior)
Balthasar Regis (died 1757), Canon of Windsor
Balthasar Russow (1536-1600), Estonian chronicler
Balthazar Johannes Vorster (1915–1983), apartheid-era South African Prime Minister and President
McLeod John Baltazar Bethel-Thompson (born 1988), American football quarterback
Hans Urs von Balthasar (1905–1988), Swiss Roman Catholic theologian and priest

Fictional characters with the name

Film

Balthasar, a demon in the film Constantine played by Gavin Rossdale
Comte Balthazar de Bleuchamp, a pseudonym of the villain Ernst Stavro Blofeld in the James Bond novel On Her Majesty's Secret Service and the film of the same name
Balthasar, a supporting character in the film The Scorpion King played by actor Michael Clarke Duncan
Balthazar Blake, a thousand-year-old sorcerer, protagonist of the 2010 film The Sorcerer's Apprentice played by Nicolas Cage
Balthazar Bratt, a supervillain and former child star, main antagonist of the 2017 film Despicable Me 3 voiced by Trey Parker
Edgar Balthazar, a butler, main antagonist of the 1970 film The Aristocats voiced by Roddy Maude-Roxby
Balthazar M. Edison, male human who became the Villain "Krall" in the 2016 film "Star Trek: Beyond"

Gaming

Balthazar, the god of war and fire in the online game Guild Wars
Balthazar, a fictional monk from Baldur's Gate II: Throne of Bhaal
Balthasar (Old Man Bal), Nikolai Balthasar, and Maria Balthasar, characters from the Square game, Xenogears
The primary antagonist in the Xbox game Azurik: Rise of Perathia
The name of a minotaur and a lair in Might and Magic VIII
Belthasar, one of the three Gurus who assist the main party in the RPG, Chrono Trigger

Novels

Balthasar, a character in The Death Gate Cycle books
Balthazar More, a character in the Evernight series introduced in the Evernight series
Bastian Balthazar Bux, the main character in the book The Neverending Story
Balthazar, The Hound of Count Kaliovzky in the book The Red Necklace
Jacob Balthazar, the wood sculptor murdered in the story Tintin and the Broken Ear
Balthasar, a Tiger tank gunner in The Last Citadel: A Novel of the Battle of Kursk by David L. Robbins
Balthasar, a supporting character in Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ, and its various adaptations
Balthazar Claes, the main character of Honore de Balzac's The Quest of the Absolute in the series La Comédie humaine
Balthazar (comics), a character in the Marvel Comics universe
Balthazar Abrabanel, a character in 1632

Plays

Balthasar, a minor character in Romeo and Juliet
Balthazar, Portia's masculine alter-ego, as well as a minor character in Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice
Balthasar, a singer and a follower of Don Pedro in Shakespeare's comedy Much Ado About Nothing
Balthazar, a merchant in the Shakespeare's The Comedy of Errors
Prince Balthazar, son of the Portuguese Viceroy, in Thomas Kyd's The Spanish Tragedy (1592)
Baalthazar Macaw, an opera singing macaw in Robert J. Sherman's Love Birds (2015)

Television

Birk Balthazar, the father of Sofia Balthazar in Sofia the First
Balthazar, a demon in the episode "Bad Girls" of the TV series Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Balthasar, the godfather of Gargamel in The Smurfs
Belthazor, alternate name of the character Cole Turner in the TV series Charmed, portrayed by Julian McMahon
Balthazar, an angel in the TV series Supernatural, portrayed by Sebastian Roché
Balthasar, one of three cooperating supercomputers in the anime series Neon Genesis Evangelion
Balthazar, the dog on the British sitcom Vicious
Baltazar, the main villain in the CGI Doctor Who story The Infinite Quest
Balthazar, a stuffed bear who was the leader on Jim Henson's The Secret Life of Toys