'bakshi' originates from Persian, specifically the word 'bakhshī', where the root 'bakhsh-' (from 'bakhshidan') meant 'to give'.

'bakshi' passed into South Asian languages (Urdu, Hindi) during the Mughal period as a title for officials who distributed pay; it later became used as a hereditary surname.

Initially, it meant 'giver' or 'distributor', but over time it became specialized to mean 'paymaster' and later also became a family name.