The family name Baskin is of matronymic origin. The meaning of the name is “(the child) of Basya”, where Basya (or Bas’ka) is the Yiddish form Hebrew feminine name Bathya.

The structure of the surname (addition of the suffix “-in”) indicates that most probably this family names was adopted in Belarus, where this form of surnames was most common.

We assume that this family name for the first time appears in the territory of Russian Empire (Belarus) just after the implementation of new regulations regarding hereditary family name.

The early family name bearers resided in the areas of Mstislavl’ and Bobruysk. In the later stage we see spreading of the family name bearers to several directions: Lithuania (Wilna), Ukraine (Kiev, Poltava, Ekaterinoslav), Poland (Grodno area).