'babesia' originates from Neo-Latin, named after the Romanian bacteriologist 'Victor Babeș' (surname 'Babeș'), where the genus name was coined in his honour.

'Babesia' was coined in scientific Neo-Latin in the late 19th century to designate the genus; it entered English scientific usage as 'Babesia' and is pluralized in regular English form as 'babesias'.

Initially the term primarily served as an eponym honoring 'Babeș'; over time it came to denote the biological genus itself — 'a group of intraerythrocytic protozoan parasites' — and now commonly refers to members of that genus.