Bazyli

The name Bazyli reaches back to the Greek Basileios, formed from basileus, the word for a king. Its short meaning follows plainly: kingly, royal. That same root produced the English Basil, the French Basile, and the East Slavic Wasyl, so the name has cousins across a good part of Europe.

Poland met it largely through the Church. Saint Basil the Great, the fourth-century bishop of Caesarea, is counted among the Cappadocian Fathers, and his feast on the second of January holds Bazyli on the Polish calendar. The shorter variant bazyl trims the name without touching its sense.

It sounds old now, and it is.

On a school class register, the name stands apart from the Jakubs and Kacpers around it, less common than it was a century ago. Whoever bears it answers to a Greek word that once meant king.