Balaji

English

Etymology

Borrowed from Sanskrit बालाजी (bālājī), from बाल (bāla, “young boy, the form of Vishnu at the Tirupati temple in Andhra Pradesh.”) + -जी (-jī, “honorific”). The surname is particularly found in Andhra Pradesh.

Proper noun

Balaji (plural Balajis)

1. A surname from Tamil.
   • 2024 December 14, Alys Davies, “OpenAI whistleblower found dead in San Francisco apartment”, in BBC‎^[1]:

     In recent months Mr Balaji had publicly spoken out against artificial intelligence company OpenAI's practices, which has been fighting a number of lawsuits relating to its data-gathering practices.

Statistics

• According to the 2010 United States Census, Balaji is the 27707^th most common surname in the United States, belonging to 868 individuals. Balaji is most common among Asian/Pacific Islander (96.54%) individuals.

Further reading

• Hanks, Patrick, editor (2003), “Balaji”, in Dictionary of American Family Names, volume 1, New York: Oxford University Press, →ISBN, page 87.