Basil — #2008 US boys' name

What the Data Says About Basil

The Social Security Administration has registered 13,095 babies named Basil between 1880 and 2024, spanning 145 consecutive years of U.S. birth records. As a boy's name, Basil currently holds the #2008 rank among boys for 2024. The name reached its historical peak in 1924, when 281 babies received it in a single year.

Decade-level aggregation shows that Basil performed strongest in the 1920s, accumulating 2,450 births during that ten-year window. Across the 15 decades of recorded activity, Basil shows a clear decline from its mid-century high. Geographically, the name is most concentrated in New York, which accounts for 1,104 births — the largest state-level total in the dataset — followed by Pennsylvania and West Virginia. In total, SSA state-level files list Basil in 34 of the 51 U.S. reporting jurisdictions.

No etymological entry is currently available for Basil in our reference dataset. These figures derive from SSA's annual national and state-level name files, which include any name appearing at least five times in a given year or state-year; names below that threshold are suppressed for privacy and therefore excluded from the totals shown here. The 13,095 total represents a lower bound — actual usage may be higher in years or states where the count fell below the disclosure floor. This page is provided for informational and research purposes only and does not constitute personal, legal, or naming advice.