section_path: Name
section_name: Name
paragraph_text: Name
  
  The name of Basel is first recorded as Basilia in the 3rd century (237/8), at the time referring to the Roman castle. This name is mostly interpreted as deriving from the personal name Basilius, from a toponym villa Basilia (" estate of Basilius") or similar.
  
  Another suggestion derives it from a name Basilia attested in northern France as a development of basilica, the term for a public or church building (as in Bazeilles), but all of these names reference early church buildings of the 4th or 5th century and cannot be adduced for the 3rd-century attestation of Basilia.
  
  By popular etymology, or simple assonance, the basilisk becomes closely associated with the city, used as heraldic supporter from 1448, represented on coins minted by the city, and frequently found in ornaments.
  
  The Middle French form Basle was adopted into English, but this form has fallen gradually out of use although it continues to be used with the modern French pronunciation in some sections of British English, at least informally. Currently, the spelling Basel is most often used, to match the official German spelling. In French Basle was still in use in the 18th century, but was gradually replaced by the modern French spelling Bâle. In Icelandic, the city is recorded as Buslaraborg in the 12th-century itinerary Leiðarvísir og borgarskipan.