Santiago (name)

Santiago is a masculine Spanish name that derives from the Hebrew name Jacob (Ya'akov) via "Sant Iago", "Sant Yago", "Santo Iago", or "Santo Yago", first used to denote Saint James the Great, the brother of John the Apostle.^[1] It is traditionally believed that Saint James (Santiago) had travelled to the Iberian Peninsula during his life and was buried there. The name is complicated in Spanish in that Jaime and Jacobo are modern versions of James.^{[citation needed]}

Variants of Santiago include Iago (a common Galician language name), and Thiago or Tiago (a common Portuguese language name). The common name James has many forms in Iberia, including Xacobo or Xacobe and Iago (in Galician), Jaume, Xaume (in Catalan), Jaime, Jacobo, and Diego (in Spanish) and Jacó or Jacob, Jaime and Diogo (in Portuguese). San Diego does not refer to Saint James but to Saint Didacus of Alcalá, although the name Diego has now been associated with James via folk etymology for over two centuries.

"Santi", "San", "Tiago", or "Thiago" are the nicknames for Santiago, although "Sandy" is sometimes used in English-speaking countries.^{[citation needed]}