'babesia' originates from Neo-Latin, derived from the Romanian surname 'Babeș' combined with the Latinized suffix '-ia', where 'Babeș' was the name of the scientist Victor Babeș and '-ia' is a suffix used to form genus names.

'babesia' was established as a genus name in the late 19th century for protozoa described in work associated with Victor Babeș; organisms previously grouped with 'Piroplasma' (piroplasms) were later reclassified into the genus 'Babesia'.

Initially, the name meant 'the protozoan associated with Babeș', but over time it came to denote specifically 'tick-borne, intraerythrocytic parasites of the genus Babesia' responsible for babesiosis.