[Gocamino] [saintjames] Wherefrom "Santiago"?

Tue Jul 6 08:05:18 PDT 2010

I find this interesting -- more so because of the way everyone seems to want
to complicate matters! I am not sure who this Moore is that you refer to
Rosina, but my feeling is that he missed the obvious! A admit not knowing
the Spanish language -- which you do, but, when I did my research about the
name for my book, I tried to find the connection between Iago (with the San
in front, it gets a 't' - two vowels together -- to form San-t-iago -- and
according to a 79 year old spaniard that I met on the Camino who was called
Santiago, he told me I could also call him Tiago as this is an abbreviation
of Santiago -- and he did not see himself as particularly saintly!..) -- the
connection between the Spanish Iago, the French Jacques, the English James
and Dutch/German Jacob.

It all goes much further than Shakespeare!! (or did I miss the point with
that reference??) The original name is Yaakov or Jacob -- as in the the son
of Isaac and Rebecca and the father of the twelve founders of the twelve
tribes of Israe in the Old Testament. Before translation, of course this was
Latin *Iacobus*, (later *Iacomus*) which was from the Greek * Ιακωβος
**<http://www.behindthename.com/support/transcribe.php?type=GR&target=Iakwbos>
**-- Iakobos*, which was from the Hebrew name *יַעֲקֹב  -- Ya'aqov*. The
meaning of the name is 'supplanter' --- or 'holder of the heel' -- because,
of course, Jacob being held by his heel by his twin brother, Esau, when they
were born. ( -- I remember my favourite  professor at university -- who
adored Shakespeare's logic and reasoning, explaining his cleverness by
citing this example of choice of names -- Iago being the 'supplanter')  From
there then the French turned it into *Jacques*, Spanish into *Iago*, the
Germanic languages into *Jacob*, English into *James *--( the 'm' probably
from the Latin *Iacomus*, a later variant of *Iacobus*.)

Wilna

On 6 July 2010 16:21, Diane Maxon <maxon03 at yahoo.com> wrote:

> There is also, of course, Diego.  How does that fit in?
>
>
>
>
> ________________________________
> From: Robert Spenger <rspenger at earthlink.net>
> To: James †Yahoo Saint <saintjames at yahoogroups.com>; OakApple †GoCamino
> <gocamino at oakapple.net>
> Sent: Mon, July 5, 2010 5:38:58 PM
> Subject: Re: [Gocamino] [saintjames] Wherefrom "Santiago"?
>
> I have long suspected this. Since Willy-boy was a young man of about 24
> years at
> the Armada, it probably made a deep impression and it is not surprising
> that he
> would name his villain after the patron saint of Spain.
>
> In regard to the variations of the name, it is easy to see the relationship
> of
> Jacob and even Jacques to Iacobus. But how did Giacomo arise and how did
> the
> English end up with James (from Giacomo perhaps?) and how does Jaime fit
> into
> all this? Also not mentioned by Peter Moore was that Iacobus was derived
> from
> the name in Greek, which was in turn derived form Hebrew, which would be
> the
> original as far as the saint was concerned although the name might have had
> other predecessors before it was given to him.
>
> Bob S/.
>
> On Jul 5, 2010, at 11:47 AM, Rosina wrote:
>
>
> Hello you all,
> If you have been among the one thousand million people on our planet
> watching
> the World Cup games, you couldn't have failed to notice the name "Tiago" on
> the
> shirt of one of the Portuguese players. The name is quite popular in
> Portugal
> and in Brasil in that form which is, of course de origin of San (Saint)
> Tiago.
> In Spain both the adjective San and the name Tiago were popularly combined
> into
> "Santiago" which is as popular a Christian name in Spain as Tiago is in
> both
> Portugal and Brasil.
> But, how did the biblical original name "Jacob" metamorphosed into Tiago
> and
> Santiago? About ten years ago a message was posted on the list serve who
> preceded, by two, the present "Go Camino" one. Of the thousands of postings
> in
> the list servs over the past decade I have kept only four messages , and
> that is
> one of them. It reads:
> --------------
>
> "In 1996 Peter R. Moore wrote an illuminating article about the connection
> between "Shakespeare's Iago and Santiago Matamoros".
> As has been mentioned here several times, the name Santiago is a
> contraction
> of San Iago; "Iago" derives from the Latin "Iacobus"; "Sanctus Iacobus",
> the
> patron saint of Spain, became "Sanct Iago" and "Santiago". (The use of Iago
> as a first name fell in disuse in Spain as it became replaced with
> Santiago,
> but in Portugal and Brazil the name Tiago continues to be used and it is
> quite popular).
> Shakespeare, as most playwrights of his time, adapted popular novellas for
> the theater. The Othello story comes from an Italian work by Giraldo
> Cinthio
> called "Hecatommithi"; specifically from the seventh novella in the third
> decade of the work, which was published in 1566. The plot involves a
> villain,
> and a handkerchief which is used to deceive his Moorish superior.
> In Cinthio's novella the only character who has a name is "Disdemona"
> (apparently derived from Heraclitus "ehtos antropoi daimon" -character is
> destiny-"). The Iago character is referred to as "lo scellerato alfieri"
> but
> never
> addressed by name.
> Shakespeare very likely chose the name Iago because it created a hostile
> sound for the English audiences. "Santiago y cierra Espana", invoking the
> assistance of Santiago Matamoros, had been the Spaniards war cry during
> 1585-1604, a cry well known in England throughout the twenty-year war.
> The Spanish connection is also suggested by Iago's use of a Spaniard word:
> "Who's that who rings the bell? Diablo, ho!", also Othello kills himself
> with a "sword of Spain" . Of course, it is Iago who brings about the death
> of a Moor and becomes thereby a "matamoro".
>
> Liz"
> ------------------------------
>
> Hugs!
>
> Rosina
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>
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