# Cities with "San" or "Saint" in their names **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [June 11, 2012, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cities-with-san-or-saint-in-their-names/624848 "2012-06-11T19:51:20Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 19\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2012, 3:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cities-with-san-or-saint-in-their-names/624848/41 "2012-06-12T15:07:06Z")
Saints preserve us. ---
**Author:** ![Crafter\_Man](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crafter_man/32/458_2.png) [@Crafter\_Man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crafter_Man)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2012, 6:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cities-with-san-or-saint-in-their-names/624848/42 "2012-06-12T18:20:56Z")
My postal address is Saint Paris, Ohio. ---
**Author:** ![mbh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a6a055/32.png) [@mbh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mbh)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2012, 6:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cities-with-san-or-saint-in-their-names/624848/43 "2012-06-12T18:31:27Z")
Regarding Santa Fe: > [@](#): > > from wikipedia > > The city’s full name when founded was \*La Villa Real de la Santa Fé de San Francisco de Asís \*(“The Royal Town of the Holy Faith of St. Francis of Assisi”). ---
**Author:** ![Morgenstern](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Morgenstern](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morgenstern)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2012, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cities-with-san-or-saint-in-their-names/624848/44 "2012-06-12T20:45:06Z")
Rancho Santa Fe, CA ---
**Author:** ![matt\_mcl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ab992/32.png) [@matt\_mcl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/matt_mcl)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2012, 12:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cities-with-san-or-saint-in-their-names/624848/45 "2012-06-13T00:00:53Z")
There are absolute scads and scads in Quebec. Just in the island of Montreal are the current or former municipalities of Sainte-Anne-de-Bellevue, Sainte-Geneviève, Saint-Laurent, Saint-Léonard, and Côte-Saint-Luc, and the Sud-Ouest borough alone contains the neighbourhoods of Saint-Henri, Côte-Saint-Paul, and Pointe-Saint-Charles. According to the Office de toponymie du Québec, there are 1,417 names for inhabited places in Quebec that include the string “saint”. According to the directory of municipalities of the Quebec ministry of municipal affairs, 515 of the 1,112 municipalities in Quebec contain the string “saint”, including such gems as Saint-Tite (home of the annual Festival Western de Saint-Tite), Saint-Onésime-d’Ixworth, Saint-Louis-du-Ha! Ha!, Sainte-Émélie-de-l’Énergie, and Saint-Louis-de-Gonzague-du-Cap-Tourmente (population: 3). A further 28 contain “Notre-Dame”. ---
**Author:** ![JRDelirious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jrdelirious/32/9531_2.png) [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2012, 1:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cities-with-san-or-saint-in-their-names/624848/46 "2012-06-13T01:06:03Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Does El Pueblo de Nuestra Señora la Reina de los Ángeles del Río de Porciúncula count? There’s no word meaning “saint” in there, but it’s still named after one. Just think, in any of many alternate timelines it could have become the City of La Reina, instead. ---
**Author:** ![Civil\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/d78d45/32.png) [@Civil\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Civil_Guy)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2012, 4:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cities-with-san-or-saint-in-their-names/624848/47 "2012-06-13T04:48:43Z")
This week, I think the better name is probably something like La Ciudad de Los Reyes (please pardon the ungrammatical Spanish, if I didn’t get it right.) ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2012, 5:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cities-with-san-or-saint-in-their-names/624848/48 "2012-06-13T05:54:19Z")
No idea what the reference is to, but the Spanish grammar is perfect. ---
**Author:** ![Bridget\_Burke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7cd45c/32.png) [@Bridget\_Burke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bridget_Burke)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2012, 6:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cities-with-san-or-saint-in-their-names/624848/49 "2012-06-13T06:24:20Z")
> [@Giles](#): > > But Santa Fe (= “holy faith”) is not named after a saint, just as Santa Cruz (“holy cross”) isn’t either. Texas has several cities & towns named by the missionaries. But our “Santa Fe” in Galveston County was named after the railroad. In the 19th century, San Saba was named after the San Saba river, near the site of the Mission Santa Cruz de San Saba. Which was created to missionize the Apaches; the Comanches objected. The [painting here](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mission_Santa_Cruz_de_San_Sab%C3%A1) was on display at Houston’s Museum of Fine Art while its ownership was in dispute; it’s quite impressive, although I doubt the area is really that hilly… Then, there’s[San Patricio](http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/hls13): > [@](#): > > …founded in 1829 by the empresarios James McGloin and John McMullen after they received permission from the Mexican government on August 16, 1828, to settle 200 Irish Catholic families in Texas. ---
**Author:** ![Kamino\_Neko](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kamino_neko/32/34_2.png) [@Kamino\_Neko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kamino_Neko)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2012, 6:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cities-with-san-or-saint-in-their-names/624848/50 "2012-06-13T06:36:42Z")
> [@Civil\_Guy](#): > > This week, I think the better name is probably something like La Ciudad de Los Reyes (please pardon the ungrammatical Spanish, if I didn’t get it right.) > [@Nava](#): > > No idea what the reference is to, but the Spanish grammar is perfect. Presuming I’m translating right, I’m assuming he’s referencing the fact that LA’s hockey team, the Kings, won the Stanley Cup yesterday. ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2012, 7:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cities-with-san-or-saint-in-their-names/624848/51 "2012-06-15T19:10:06Z")
Santa Clause, the patron saint of grammar. ---
**Author:** ![Kevbo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e47774/32.png) [@Kevbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kevbo)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2012, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cities-with-san-or-saint-in-their-names/624848/52 "2012-06-15T20:43:00Z")
Santa Fe’ has been mentioned but there are probably at least a 100 wide spots in the road in New Mexico named after Spanish saints. Several duplicated, so it gets pretty confusing. I have no idea how the post office kept it straight before zip codes. Possible that these places had no mail service, and the residents had to go to the nearest bigger town to collect mail I guess. San Ysidro is my favorite for it’s ability to confuse non-locals as to it’s pronunciation. (Saneee-seed-row, with just a skosh of y sound before the long e sound) The Y not followed by a vowel trips up english speakers. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Drake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ad7895/32.png) [@Dr.Drake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Drake)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2012, 9:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cities-with-san-or-saint-in-their-names/624848/53 "2012-06-15T21:01:30Z")
> [@Kevbo](#): > > Santa Fe’ has been mentioned but there are probably at least a 100 wide spots in the road in New Mexico named after Spanish saints. Several duplicated, so it gets pretty confusing. I have no idea how the post office kept it straight before zip codes. Possible that these places had no mail service, and the residents had to go to the nearest bigger town to collect mail I guess. San Ysidro is my favorite for it’s ability to confuse non-locals as to it’s pronunciation. (Saneee-seed-row, with just a skosh of y sound before the long e sound) The Y not followed by a vowel trips up english speakers. The one near San Diego is often pronounced “San Yuh-seed-row” by English speakers, or it was when I was a kid. I’d go so far as to say that’s the accepted English pronunciation of the place name, which is of course just Saint Isidore. ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2012, 10:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cities-with-san-or-saint-in-their-names/624848/54 "2012-06-15T22:03:50Z")
> [@J\_Cubed](#): > > Can’t you just go along the coast and figure out which day of the year the Spanish explorers sighted each topographic feature by the associated saint name? In the region formerly controlled by Spain and Mexico, I’d think you can find places named for each Apostle as well as most of the other better known saints of the Catholic Church. Quite a few places were named for the saint on whose feast day they reached a place. ---
**Author:** ![dauerbach](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c2a13f/32.png) [@dauerbach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dauerbach)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2012, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cities-with-san-or-saint-in-their-names/624848/55 "2012-06-17T21:35:24Z")
Although it does not follow the rules Corpus Christie seems of similar ilk. ---
**Author:** ![guizot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guizot/32/3636_2.png) [@guizot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/guizot)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2012, 10:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cities-with-san-or-saint-in-their-names/624848/56 "2012-06-17T22:03:11Z")
> [@Nava](#): > > Not every time, but it’s a good guess; sometimes it gets superseded by a Saint that’s popular with the Order which first settled the area (such as several St Augustines). San Diego is an example that it isn’t so simple: [QUOTE=Wikipedia] The first European to visit the region was Portuguese-born explorer Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo sailing under the flag of Castile. Sailing his flagship San Salvador from Navidad, New Spain, Cabrillo claimed the bay for the Spanish Empire in 1542 and named the site ‘San Miguel’.[5] In November 1602, Sebastián Vizcaíno was sent to map the California coast. Arriving on his flagship San Diego, Vizcaíno surveyed the harbor and what are now Mission Bay and Point Loma and named the area for the Catholic Saint Didacus, a Spaniard more commonly known as San Diego de Alcalá. On November 12, 1602, the first Christian religious service of record in Alta California was conducted by Friar Antonio de la Ascensión, a member of Vizcaíno’s expedition, to celebrate the feast day of San Diego. [/quote] ---
**Author:** ![Bridget\_Burke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7cd45c/32.png) [@Bridget\_Burke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bridget_Burke)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2012, 10:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cities-with-san-or-saint-in-their-names/624848/57 "2012-06-17T22:04:03Z")
The City of Corpus Christi was founded in the 1840’s by mostly Anglo settlers; of course, it was a pretty simple settlement at the time. But it got its name from its location on [Corpus Christi Bay](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corpus_Christi_Bay), named by the Spaniards because they discovered it on the Feat of Corpus Christi. ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2012, 11:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cities-with-san-or-saint-in-their-names/624848/58 "2012-06-17T23:12:23Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Does El Pueblo de Nuestra Señora la Reina de los Ángeles del Río de Porciúncula count? That’s awful long. Can we call it by its acronym? Does EPDNSLRDLADRDP work for you? ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2012, 6:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cities-with-san-or-saint-in-their-names/624848/59 "2012-06-18T06:34:53Z")
> [@Kevbo](#): > > Santa Fe’ has been mentioned but there are probably at least a 100 wide spots in the road in New Mexico named after Spanish saints. Several duplicated, so it gets pretty confusing. I have no idea how the post office kept it straight before zip codes. They may have done something like what the Spanish train companies did with some town names: they call those towns by a name that’s not used by any other organization and definitely not by the locals. An example: in Spain there’s a town called Tudela, which is in the province of Navarra, and another one called Tudela de Duero, which is much smaller and in Valladolid. Renfe lists them as Tudela de Duero and Tudela de Navarra, leading many people to think the one in Navarra is actually called “Tudela de Navarra” (it’s not outside Renfe’s signs) or that there are three Tudelas: Tudela de Navarra, Tudela de Duero and “the Tudela that’s famous by its vegetables, which is in Navarra”. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cities-with-san-or-saint-in-their-names/624848.md?page=2)