Basil

Basil comes from Greek Basileios, connected with the word for “royal.” It has a substantial history as a personal name, including Saint Basil the Great and Byzantine rulers. The familiar herb offers an additional botanical association, but the name’s historical use is not simply a recent borrowing from a kitchen garden.

Actor Basil Rathbone and the fictional Basil Fawlty give it very different English-language associations. Pronunciation also varies: the short-a form familiar in British personal names differs from the long-a pronunciation often used for the herb in American English. A family can choose the form natural to its own language while keeping the older royal meaning in view. Basile, Basilio, and Vasily show how widely the same name family has traveled.