Diego is a

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries **Spanish cuisine Other places * Spanish, Ontario, Can ...

masculine given name. The

Portuguese Portuguese may refer to: * anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Portugal ** Portuguese cuisine, traditional foods ** Portuguese language, a Romance language *** Portuguese dialects, variants of the Portuguese language ** Portu ...

equivalent is Diogo. The name also has several patronymic derivations, listed below. The etymology of Diego is disputed, with two major origin hypotheses: ''Tiago'' and ''Didacus''.

Etymology

''Tiago'' hypothesis

Diego has long been interpreted as variant of ''Tiago'' (

Brazilian Portuguese Brazilian Portuguese (' ), also Portuguese of Brazil (', ) or South American Portuguese (') is the set of varieties of the Portuguese language native to Brazil and the most influential form of Portuguese worldwide. It is spoken by almost all of ...

: ''

Thiago Thiago is the Portuguese equivalent of the names Jacob and James. It is the archaic spelling of the name Tiago, presently mostly used in Brazil; in Portugal, the modern spelling largely prevails. * Thiago (footballer, born September 1988), full ...

''), an abbreviation of ''Santiago'', from the older ''Sant Yago'' "Saint

Jacob Jacob (; ; ar, يَعْقُوب, Yaʿqūb; gr, Ἰακώβ, Iakṓb), later given the name Israel, is regarded as a patriarch of the Israelites and is an important figure in Abrahamic religions, such as Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. J ...

", in English known as Saint James or as ''San-Tiago''. This has been the standard interpretation of the name since at least the 19th century, as it was reported by

Robert Southey Robert Southey ( or ; 12 August 1774 – 21 March 1843) was an English poet of the Romantic school, and Poet Laureate from 1813 until his death. Like the other Lake Poets, William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Southey began as a ra ...

in 1808 and by Apolinar Rato y Hevia (1891). The suggestion that this identification may be a folk etymology, i.e. that ''Diego'' (and ''Didacus''; see below) may be of another origin and only later identified with ''Jacobo'', is made by Buchholtz (1894), though this possibility is judged as improbable by the author himself.

''Didacus'' hypothesis

In the later 20th century, the traditional identification of ''Diego'' = ''Jacobo'' came to be seen as untenable. Malkiel (1975) calls the equation an "odd couple" (''extraña pareja''). The name ''Didacus'', while unattested in antiquity, predates the earliest record of the form ''Diego''. The oldest record for ''Didacus'' according to Floriano (1949) dates to 747, with numerous further records during the 9th century. Becker (2009) argues against possible derivation from the

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

name '' Diadochus'', but also against suggestions of

Basque Basque may refer to: * Basques, an ethnic group of Spain and France * Basque language, their language Places * Basque Country (greater region), the homeland of the Basque people with parts in both Spain and France * Basque Country (autonomous co ...

and Celtic derivations.Lidia Becker, ''Hispano-romanisches Namenbuch: Untersuchung der Personennamen vorrömischer, griechischer und lateinisch-romanischer Etymologie auf der Iberischen Halbinsel im Mittelalter (6.–12. Jahrhundert)'' (De Gruyter, 2009), pp. 385–392. ''Didacus'' is recorded in the forms ''Diaco'' and ''Diago'' in the 10th century. The form ''Diego'' is first recorded in the late 11th century. Its original derivation from ''Didacus'' is uncertain, among other things because the shift from ''-ía-'' to ''-ié-'' is unexplained (Becker 2009:386). The name ''Diego Gonzalez'' is given to a character in the '' Cantar de mio Cid'', a 12th-century poem. It has been argued on metrical grounds that the name ''Diego'' in the ''Cantar'' represents an original ''Díago''.Becker (2009:386). Medieval bearers of the name, such as

Diego de Acebo Diego de Acebo (also known as ''Diaz de Osma'', ''Alphonsus Didacus'', ''Didacus Acebes'') was bishop of Osma (Castile, Spain) from 1201 to 1207. Life Diego de Acebo was prior of the cathedral chapter of the ''Catedral de Santa María de la Asunc ...

(d. 1207), are recorded as ''Didacus'' in contemporary sources. ''Diego'' becomes the standard form of the name in the 14th century, and it is frequently given in the 16th century, e.g. Diego Laynez, 1512–1565. The city of

San Diego San Diego ( , ; ) is a city on the Pacific Ocean coast of Southern California located immediately adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a 2020 population of 1,386,932, it is the eighth most populous city in the United State ...

was named for the flagship of

Sebastián Vizcaíno Sebastián Vizcaíno (1548–1624) was a Spanish soldier, entrepreneur, explorer, and diplomat whose varied roles took him to New Spain, the Baja California peninsula, the California coast and Asia. Early career Vizcaíno was born in 154 ...

(1602), which was itself named for

Didacus of Alcalá Didacus of Alcalá ( es, Diego de Alcalá), also known as Diego de San Nicolás, was a Spanish Franciscan lay brother who served as among the first group of missionaries to the newly conquered Canary Islands. He died at Alcalá de Henares on 12 ...

(d. 1463).

As a patronym

The patronym for Diego is '' Díaz'' in

Castilian Spanish In English, Castilian Spanish can mean the variety of Peninsular Spanish spoken in northern and central Spain, the standard form of Spanish, or Spanish from Spain in general. In Spanish, the term (Castilian) can either refer to the Spanish langu ...

(used for example by Rodrigo Díaz de Vivar, better known as El Cid) and '' Dias'' in Portuguese. Like many patronymics, these have become common surnames among

Iberophone Iberophone or Pan-Iberian space (''Iberofonía'' or ''espacio iberófono o panibérico'' in Spanish, ''Iberofonia'' or ''espaço iberófono ou panibérico'' in Portuguese) is a neologism used to designate the Iberian languages-speaking countri ...

s worldwide. The form ''Diéguez'' is much less common; ''Diegues'' can be found in Lusophone countries. ''Diego'' and ''de Diego'' can also be found as surnames.

As an ethnic term

"Diego" as a metonym for a

Spaniard Spaniards, or Spanish people, are a Romance ethnic group native to Spain. Within Spain, there are a number of national and regional ethnic identities that reflect the country's complex history, including a number of different languages, both i ...

is documented from around 1615. The term "

Dago Dago may refer to: Places * Dagö/Dagø, the Swedish/Danish name of Hiiumaa, Estonia * Dago, Ghana, a village * Dago, Bandung, an area in Bandung, West Java, Indonesia * Dago Creek, Alaska * The Hill, St. Louis, in St. Louis, Missouri, was r ...

" as a generic name for Spaniards is recorded in the 19th century and may possibly be a derivation from ''Diego''. By the early 20th century, the term ''dago'' or ''dego'' was extended as an

ethnic slur The following is a list of ethnic slurs or ethnophaulisms or ethnic epithets that are, or have been, used as insinuations or allegations about members of a given ethnicity or racial group or to refer to them in a derogatory, pejorative, or ot ...

applied chiefly to Italian Americans, besides also for anyone of

descent.

References