Some consider Blasius to be a mere contraction of the Greek Basilios (royal); but long before that name prevailed, at least among historical personages, we hear of Blatius, Blattius, or Blasius, as a man of Salapia, in Apulia, whose name seems to have signified a babbler.  Nevertheless, Blasio was a surname in the Cornelian gens, and Blasius was Bishop of Sebaste, in Nicomedia, where he was martyred in 316.  In the time of the Crusades, his relics were imported from the East, he became patron of the republic of Ragusa; and from a tradition that he had been combed to death with iron combs, such an implement was his mark, and he was the favourite saint of the English wool-staplers.  The only vestige of this as a name in England is, however, in Goldsmith's Madam Blase; but in Spanish Blas is used, as no reader of Gil Blas can forget.  Blasius is found in Bavaria; and Plase, Blase, Bleisig, and Bläsing, are surnames thence derived. (History of Christian Names, Yonge, 1884)