There is a Balaban village on/near Kartepe Mountain in Turkey. This is on the Black Sea coast very near Izmir. The location is not really far from Greece and Bulgaria which makes migration to and from these areas very possible/plausible, especially over generations. Bulgaria and Greece would serve as gateways to Macedonia, Serbia and Romania, so I would not be surprised to find the same name in all of those countries...not to mention that over the centuries & through the wars, borders change, etc. The question should be where are the EARLIEST records of the name and whether genealogists/anthropologists/ethnologists can find records which indicate direction of family movements...