Balabanov
Appearance
Balabanov (Balaban, Balabanoff, Ballabon, etc.) and their derivatives (-ovs, -ich, etc.) are common last names in Macedonia, Serbia, Bulgaria, Ukraine and Russia.
Prominent Balabanovs
- Aleksei Balabanov (1959-2013), a Russian filmmaker
- Andrey Balabanov, Soviet-born Ukrainian sprint canoer
- Angelica Balabanov (1878-1965), a Russian-Italian Marxist revolutionary, Comintern secretary in 1919-1921
- Kostantyn Balabanov (b. 1982), a Ukrainian football player
- Vasile Balabanov (1873-1947), a Provincial Administrator of Imperial Russia
- Family Balabanovi in North Macedonia in Shtip
Origins of the name
Possible origins of the name according to Dr. Tudor Balabanov:
- 1. in the Kazakh Mountains there is an eagle called Balaban from which the name may be derived.
- 2. One of the recipients of this name may have been the Persians that around 4000 years ago started naming the leading three soldiers of a battalion, namely: the one with the flag, those with a drum, and the one with a blow instrument - the Balabans.
- 3. The Turks may have taken over this name and given it to the relatively tall non-Muslim men from their territories.