Its Portuguese not spanish btw, it comes from the amalgamation of Santo- meaning saint, and Tiago- meaning james, so you were correct about the meaning Fullon, just wrong language, James is jaime in spanish. I know this as my name is james sant. And I was just in brazil, where they speak Portuguese, and the people we were with were explaining all of this, and why the called me Saint James in Portuguese: Santo Tiago hope this helps
The name Santiago comes from the Spanish tongue and is used widely in the Lusitanic and the Hispanic world. It is used as both a name and a surname. As a name it is generally reserved for boys. It is also used as the name of places. The meaning of the name is "Saint James". It is a kind of amalgamation of the names Saint Diego and the name James. The name has almost five variations including Sandiago, Santeago, Santiaco and Santigo besides Santiago. Santiago is found used as the name of the Capital of the South American country of Chile. There are over a thirty places in Portugal called Santiago, a couple of places with Santiago used in their names in Spain, Argentina, and Mexico etc. Infact nearly every country in Latin American has at least one place called Santiago.
Actually my surname is santiago. And as I know, it comes from the spanish on spanish days. Because the ship that the spanish have used in many years later is santiago when they searching the island of moluccas or spice islands. And it also comes from saint james.
