The town was originally named Beddington. The name was changed to Balzac on Juky 1, 1925.
The town was named after the CPR station which had been named by William Cornelius Van Horne, then president of the Canadian Pacific Railway, after one of his favourite authors, Honore de Balzac (1799–1850) a noted French novelist.
The Post office opened on April 1, 1912