# The evolution of the name "James" **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [March 16, 2015, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-evolution-of-the-name-james/715133 "2015-03-16T18:21:51Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2015, 4:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-evolution-of-the-name-james/715133/21 "2015-03-18T04:45:48Z")
[5939 Spanish mothers](http://www.ine.es/tnombres/formGeneralresult.do;jsessionid=84993E130BFA7C295A4D831FF4147C5E.tnombres01?vista=3) in the last 100 years or so did… (and most of them in the last 30 years, average age is 14). ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2015, 4:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-evolution-of-the-name-james/715133/22 "2015-03-18T04:49:39Z")
> [@susan](#): > > Will no one think of poor Iago (also James)? That was actually part of the discussion above. Did “Diego” come from “Santiago”, the “t” morphing into the “d” and the “san” falling off? ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2015, 5:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-evolution-of-the-name-james/715133/23 "2015-03-18T05:00:58Z")
> [@Nava](#): > > [5939 Spanish mothers](http://www.ine.es/tnombres/formGeneralresult.do;jsessionid=84993E130BFA7C295A4D831FF4147C5E.tnombres01?vista=3) in the last 100 years or so did… (and most of them in the last 30 years, average age is 14). Oh, and Yago, 6207, average age 11. Both Iago and Yago are much more common in Galicia (NW corner) than in the rest of Spain. **jayjay** , the San doesn’t so much fall off as separate again. The idea is that Santiago came from Sant merging with Iago, and then it resplit. The treatment for male saints in Spanish and Galego is San, but it used to be Sant (it’s still Sant in Catalan). ---
**Author:** ![Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slow_moving_vehicle/32/291_2.png) [@Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slow_Moving_Vehicle)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2015, 5:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-evolution-of-the-name-james/715133/24 "2015-03-18T17:14:15Z")
> [@Nava](#): > > I’ve met Irish and British Jaimes, Jaimies and Jamies. African-Americans aren’t the only ones who get creative with spellings. Really? Hunh. I’ve never encountered a Jaime in America who wasn’t Hispanic. But, as you said, people get creative with names. For what it’s worth, _Jamie_ seems to be becoming an exclusively female name, at least in this country. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2015, 4:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-evolution-of-the-name-james/715133/25 "2015-03-19T04:48:13Z")
> [@AK84](#): > > Explain James Rodriguez then. Pronounced as “Ha-miss” by commentators. Or is it a Columbian quirk? > [@JKellyMap](#): > > It’s a Spanish pronunciation of the English name. And if the question was why did his mother name him James, I can’t know the specific reason since I haven’t met the lady, but the usual reasons for Hispanics to pick a foreign name are: - liking the foreign name, - naming the child after a relative who has or had that name, - naming the child after an unrelated foreigner you want to honor (this is the reason given for “why does Letizia Ortiz spell her firstname with that confusing z?”, she was named after an Italian) - the local variant of the name has connotations they dislike and they think the foreign one will “work better”, - the local variant is exhausted in the family. Your husband is Miguel. Your father is Miguel. Your father in law is Miguel. Your firstborn is Miguel. You name your second son Michael and proceed to complain when people try to spell it Maikel or pronounce it Michel. ---
**Author:** ![AK84](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/85e7bf/32.png) [@AK84](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AK84)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2015, 5:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-evolution-of-the-name-james/715133/26 "2015-03-19T05:18:01Z")
Do Spanish people take names from other parts of the country? Do people from Madrid take Catalan names or Basque ones? ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2015, 5:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-evolution-of-the-name-james/715133/27 "2015-03-19T05:36:47Z")
Yes. ---
**Author:** ![Sarabellum](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sarabellum/32/3492_2.png) [@Sarabellum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sarabellum)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2015, 2:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-evolution-of-the-name-james/715133/28 "2015-03-19T14:30:29Z")
> [@Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](#): > > Actually, the English hypocrostic for _James_ (well, the one you’re thinking of, anyway) is spelled _Jamie_, rather than _Jaime._ Unless you’re George R. R. Martin. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Greg\_Charles](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/839c29/32.png) [@Greg\_Charles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Greg_Charles)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2015, 8:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-evolution-of-the-name-james/715133/29 "2015-03-19T20:37:41Z")
This is a great thread! So the “Di” part of Diego coming from Santiago, from Santo Yago, makes sense, and the “Y” becoming “J” also makes sense to me, but how did the “G” in Yago become the “M” in James? > [@AK84](#): > > Well not Nava and not a speaker of the Spanish langauges but, there was a Spanish soccer player called[Joan Capdevila](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joan_Capdevila) The interesting thing is that Wikipedia show the pronunciation of Joan as ʒuˈaŋ for Joan Caepdevila, but ʒuˈam for Joan Miro, even though they list both as from Catalan. > [@Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](#): > > Actually, the English hypocrostic for _James_ (well, the one you’re thinking of, anyway) is spelled _Jamie_, rather than _Jaime._ That’s a cool word. I had to look it up, and found it’s actually hypocoristic … relating to a nickname, usually a diminutive form of the real name used to show intimacy ---
**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:** [March 19, 2015, 9:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-evolution-of-the-name-james/715133/30 "2015-03-19T21:10:45Z")
> [@Greg\_Charles](#): > > This is a great thread! So the “Di” part of Diego coming from Santiago, from Santo Yago, makes sense, and the “Y” becoming “J” also makes sense to me, but how did the “G” in Yago become the “M” in James? It didn’t. 1. Ia-co-bus 2a. Ia-co-bus…2b. Ia-co-mus 3a. Ia-go-(v)…3b. Ia-(c)-m’s 4a. Ia-go…4b. Ja-mes Edit: I don’t actually know how the -co- syllable dropped out of James. I’m guessing that the vowel was reduced to nothing because of the inital-syllable stress in English and that it resulted in the difficult cluster /km/ which assimilated to /m/ through some intermediate steps. ---
**Author:** ![Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slow_moving_vehicle/32/291_2.png) [@Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slow_Moving_Vehicle)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2015, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-evolution-of-the-name-james/715133/31 "2015-03-19T21:35:58Z")
> [@Greg\_Charles](#): > > This is a great thread! So the “Di” part of Diego coming from Santiago, from Santo Yago, makes sense, and the “Y” becoming “J” also makes sense to me, but how did the “G” in Yago become the “M” in James? > > The interesting thing is that Wikipedia show the pronunciation of Joan as ʒuˈaŋ for Joan Caepdevila, but ʒuˈam for Joan Miro, even though they list both as from Catalan. > > That’s a cool word. I had to look it up, and found it’s actually hypocoristic … relating to a nickname, usually a diminutive form of the real name used to show intimacy I thought it didn’t look right, but was too lazy to look it up. Thanks for the correction; ignorance fought! ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2015, 3:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-evolution-of-the-name-james/715133/32 "2015-03-20T03:15:48Z")
> [@Greg\_Charles](#): > > The interesting thing is that Wikipedia show the pronunciation of Joan as ʒuˈaŋ for Joan Caepdevila, but ʒuˈam for Joan Miro, even though they list both as from Catalan. Typo on the second one, and I wouldn’t use /u/ there, it’s /o/ (it’s not the same vowel as in Spanish Juan). Santiago doesn’t come from Santo Yago. It comes from Sant Iago. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2015, 3:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-evolution-of-the-name-james/715133/33 "2015-03-20T03:21:59Z")
Expanding on the /o/ vs /u/ thing for Joan, my previous aye to **AK84** was on his explanation. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2015, 9:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-evolution-of-the-name-james/715133/34 "2015-03-20T09:28:56Z")
Huh. I would have guessed that the Di of Diego came from the same way we get the English J sound. Say a kind of harsh D and a fast ee sound, and it sounds a lot like a J. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-evolution-of-the-name-james/715133.md?page=1)