Santiago Family Name Sign

Where the Santiago name comes from

Santiago is a Spanish, Portuguese and Galician surname, and it was first found in Galicia, in Spain. It is a habitational name, taken from the many places named for churches dedicated to Saint James. The name itself is an elision of the earlier Sant Iago, from the Latin Sanctus Iacobus, meaning Saint James or holy James. That Latin form goes back through the Greek Iakobos to the Hebrew name Jacob, read literally as "May He Heel" and tied to the word for the heel of the foot.

The saint behind it is James the Great, brother of John the Apostle, who by tradition travelled to the Iberian Peninsula and was buried there. The same root gives Iago in Galician and Tiago or Thiago in Portuguese. Shortened forms of the surname include Sant, Santo and Santi.