# Diego **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 6, 2004, 11:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/diego/223103 "2004-01-06T23:18:36Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Palo\_Verde](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/65b543/32.png) [@Palo\_Verde](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Palo_Verde)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2004, 11:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/diego/223103/1 "2004-01-06T23:18:36Z")
What is the English equivalent to the Spanish name Diego? I assume it’s some classic name, and there is an English version (like Jorge to George). ---
**Author:** ![Q.E.D](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/51bf81/32.png) [@Q.E.D](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.E.D)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2004, 11:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/diego/223103/2 "2004-01-06T23:21:39Z")
If memory from HS Spanish serves, it’s Douglas (Doug). ---
**Author:** ![tomndebb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9e5f3/32.png) [@tomndebb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomndebb)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2004, 12:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/diego/223103/3 "2004-01-07T00:37:26Z")
I had heard that _Diego_ was a modified form of _Iago_, (James). [url=http://www.behindthename.com/nmc/spa.html]This site\* _tends_ to support that idea, pointing toward _Santiago_ (St. James), but it admits that the origin (and hence the translation), is murky. ---
**Author:** ![tomndebb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9e5f3/32.png) [@tomndebb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomndebb)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2004, 12:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/diego/223103/4 "2004-01-07T00:38:42Z")
Or [This site](http://www.behindthename.com/nmc/spa.html). ---
**Author:** ![Polycarp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/82dd89/32.png) [@Polycarp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polycarp)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2004, 1:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/diego/223103/5 "2004-01-07T01:12:15Z")
It’s the Spanish (one of them) for James – the version drawn straight from Greek and Latin, as opposed to Jaime, which derives from (IIRC) English. To get there requires a **lot** of derivation, but Yakov (Hebrew) \> Iakovos (Greek) \> Jacobus (Latin) \> Iago, dropping the ending (old Italian and Spanish). Now consider that Spain’s patron saint is St. James (Sant’Iago \> Santiago \> San Diego). Then drop the Saint. This is a common form of consonantal transfer, related to metathesis and having its own name in linguistics (and I’m sure somebody will be along with the missing piece of vocabulary). A large piece of napery (linen cloth), worn tied at the waist to cover the abdomen, was in Early Modern English a _napron_. This letter transference gave us “an apron.” In the reverse form, a fruit from India called a naranga gave us Spanish an Portuguese naranja. When English imported the fruit, it was a narange or, more commonly, a norange \> an orange (influenced by the House of Oranje, with a quite different origin, in the Netherlands). ---
**Author:** ![Palo\_Verde](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/65b543/32.png) [@Palo\_Verde](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Palo_Verde)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2004, 1:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/diego/223103/6 "2004-01-07T01:56:34Z")
Gracias! (I’m due in 2 weeks and still trying to find the perfect name) ---
**Author:** ![tomndebb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9e5f3/32.png) [@tomndebb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomndebb)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2004, 3:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/diego/223103/7 "2004-01-07T03:22:53Z")
Does he look like a sabretooth tiger in the ultrasounds? ---
**Author:** ![BobT](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/8e8cbc/32.png) [@BobT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobT)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2004, 3:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/diego/223103/8 "2004-01-07T03:32:30Z")
I was told that the city of San Diego is named after the Mission San Diego de Alcala and I was under the impression that San Diego de Alcala was referred to as Saint Didacus. Saint Didacus was one of my school’s rivals in CYO.