Vasilii
A Russian form rooted in the Greek for "royal, kingly". Fewer than 400 men in Poland carry it, so most Poles will go a lifetime without meeting a single one.
Vasilii Pronunciation
What Vasilii means
Where Vasilii comes from and what it has meant to the people who carry it.
Vasilii traces back to the Greek Basileios, formed on basileus, the everyday Greek word for a king. The meaning given here, royal and kingly, sits at that source rather than arriving later. The king is in the root.
In Russian usage the name settled as Vasily, and for centuries it ranked among the commonest men's names in the country. Vasily Kandinsky, the painter who signed himself Wassily abroad, carried the name into modern art. Before him stood Basil the Great, the fourth-century bishop of Caesarea whose Greek name was that same Basileios.
On a Polish class register, Vasilii tends to mark a family with ties to the east. The name reads as clearly Russian, and it brings its Greek pedigree along quietly. Whoever answers to it answers, by the plain sense of the word, to something kingly. The root basileus meant a king, and it still does.
How many people are named Vasilii
1 in 53769 men in Poland is named Vasilii. 397 people carry it in the 2025 register: rank #1491 among male names.
Vasilii's popularity over time
Fewer than 2 boys were given the name in 2025. It has been stable for a decade.