Ballantine is a surname of Scottish Gaelic origin. It is first found in Lanarkshire, where the family had been settled since ancient times. The name has also been spelled Balentine, Ballentine, Ballantyne, Ballantine, Ballentyne, Bannentyne, Bannatyne, Bannantyne, Ballanden, Ballanden, Ballendine, Ballendyne, and so on.
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Origin of the name
In his book The Clans, Septs, and Regiments of the Scottish Highlands (1908), Sir Thomas Innes Learney states that the original family name was Bannatyne, and was a sept associated with both Clan Campbell and Clan Stuart of Bute. In the Fourth Edition (1952) of that book, the Bannatyne association with Clan Campbell is stated to have begun in 1538, formalized in a bond signed May 10, 1547, in which the Chief of the MacAmelynes (aka Bannatynes) and Sir John Stuart, ancestor of the Marquis of Bute, engaged to stand by and support each other against all persons except the King and the Earl of Argyll, the latter reservation made so that the Chief of the Bannatynes couldfulfill the conditions of a bond of manrent give to the Early of Argyll, dated April 14, 1538.
The etymology, given in William Arthur’s An Etymological Dictionary of Family and Christian Names with an Essay on their Derivation and Import (1857), derives the name from Bal, the name of a deity, and teine, meaning fire, and relating to a place where Belenus, or Bal, was worshiped by the Celts.