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Shem Tov · Hebrew names

Boy's nameOrigin: ArabicIn Israel: falling

BasilIn Hebrew: באסל · meaning, pronunciation and popularity in Israel

Basil (Hebrew: באסל) is a boy's name of Arabic origin. 4,211 people born in Israel between 1949 and 2024 have it today, according to Israel's Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS). In 2024 it was given to 45 boys and ranked #309. Its peak year was 1995, with 249 babies.

People in Israel
4,211
born 1949–2024
Babies in 2024
45
rank #309
Peak year
1995
249 babies
USA, 2025
74
rank #2,020

Writing and saying Basil

In Hebrew letters the name is באסל, read right to left. Basil is the Latin spelling recorded in Wikidata; families choose their own spelling in passports, so you may also meet other forms.

We have no sourced English explanation of this name yet, so we do not guess one. The Hebrew page has our Hebrew notes when there are any.

Basil by year: Israel and abroad

How many boys out of every 10,000 born each year have the name. For Israel it counts the people born that year who carry the name today (the CBS counts residents by year of birth, not birth registrations).

Basil: rate per 10,000, 1950–2025

per 10,000 babies of the same sex

Basil in English-speaking countries

Basil in each official list: latest year, count, rank and peak
Country / regionYearBabiesRankPeak
United States202574#2,0201924 (281)
United Kingdom202526#1,1922021 (28)
England and Wales202526#1,1242021 (28)
Alberta20252#1,5712008 (5)

Counts for boys. The Hebrew page for Basil has every year and the other spellings.

Related Israeli names

Spelling variants and names that look or sound close in Hebrew.

Questions about Basil

How do you write Basil in Hebrew?

Basil is written באסל in Hebrew. Hebrew is read right to left.

How many people in Israel are named Basil?

4,211 people born between 1949 and 2024 carry the name באסל: 0 women and 4,211 men. The count comes from the CBS table of current first names by year of birth; years with fewer than 5 people are not published.

Is Basil a boy's or a girl's name?

In Israel it is almost always a boy's name: 100.0% of the people named באסל are men.

Is Basil used outside Israel?

The name Basil appears in the official baby name lists of English-speaking countries. In the United States 74 boys were given it in 2025 (#2,020), per the Social Security Administration. In the UK 26 in 2025 (ONS, NRS and NISRA combined).

Sources

Israel: Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS), current first names of people born 1949–2024 by sex, population group and year of birth, processed 2026-09-27. CBS publications.

Abroad

Counts are copied as published. We only merged accented spellings (Zoë = Zoe) and computed ranks and rates. Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Contains information licensed under the Open Government Licence – British Columbia and the Open Government Licence – Alberta.