From Iago to Tiago, the name that suffered an accident. And why on earth is James called James in English?
The name “Tiago”, very common in Portugal, should not exist: “it originates from a linguistic accident”, explains NOVA FCSH professor and already known on social media, Marco Franco Neves.
The story of this deception begins with the biblical name Ya’akovwhich became the Greek Iákōbos. In turn, Iákōbos passed into Latin James.
The IACOBVS would eventually give rise to names from several languages such as Jacob, James, Jacques and, for example, Iago — and not James.
Marco Franco Neves gives the example of the apostle James, whose name began to be written, in Latin, as SAINT JAMES. We began to frequently use the expression “Holy Iago” to refer to the saint.
Now, the speakers transformed SANCTVS IACOBVS into Santo Iago, which, in running speech, reads “Sant’iago” — the name “Santiago“, still used, comes from there.
But “that’s where the pig twists its tail…” jokes the master in Languages, Literatures and Cultures.
“Speakers began to interpret the name not as ‘Santo Iago’, but as ‘San Tiago’”, he explains: “the name Iago stole the T from Santo and became Tiago“, an “accident” that, in addition to being used today to name children, has even been spread to Bible translations.
And how does Ya’akov become James? “James originates from the same Latin name, but already had origins from two different names”, Marco Franco Neves: Iacobus and Iacomus. “The ‘b’ sound and the ‘m’ sound are very similar.”
“Iacomus gave rise to the English ‘James’ through a very complex path that passed through Old French”, explains the language lover, who remembers that the ‘i’, as an initial in Latin, became ‘j’ in several languages.
“Iacomus” would also, for example, give rise to the name ‘Jaime‘. And curiously, the bathtub with bubbles, the jacuzzihas the same origin as ‘Tiago’.
“Jacuzzi was a nickname used by a family of Italians in the USA who created a very particular bathtub. This name also has its origins in Jacobus.”
