Basa Family History
Basa Name Meaning
Catalan: variant of Bassa a topographic name from bassa ‘pool pond’. Basque: topographic name for someone who lived by a wood a derivative of baso ‘wood forest’. Hungarian: from the old personal name Basa or from Bazsa a pet form of Bazsil from Greek Basileios (see Basil ). In some cases the Hungarian surname could be a derivative of basa ‘pasha’ (see Pasha ) probably as a nickname for a self-important person or someone who had dealings with the Turkish authorities or occupying forces. Polish: metonymic occupational name for a musician from basa dialect form of bas ‘bass viol violoncello’. Slovenian and Croatian (Baša): from an old short form of the personal name Sebast(i)jan (see Sebastian ). The Slovenian surname may be in part also of different Croatian origin (see below). Croatian and Serbian (Baša): status name or honorific title from baša ‘senior chief distinguished person’ a loanword from Turkish baş (see Bas 7 and compare Turkish name in 8 below).7: Croatian: nickname or metonymic occupational name from basa ‘kind of sheep's milk cheese’.8: Turkish (Başa): ornamental or status name from başa a regional variant of baş ‘head’ also ‘chief’ (see Bas ) denoting someone who is senior e.g. ‘senior colleague’ (compare Croatian and Serbian name in 6 above).9: Filipino: from basa ‘to read’ a loanword in various languages of the Philippines from Malay baca which originates from Sanskrit vac ‘to speak’; probably a nickname for a learned person.10: Indian (Himachal Pradesh and other parts of northern India): ethnic name from the name of a scheduled tribe claiming descent from Asa and Basa two mythological brothers.
Source: Dictionary of American Family Names 2nd edition, 2022
