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 countries in the Americas **Spanish cuisine **Spanish history **Spanish culture ...

masculine given name. The Portuguese equivalent is Diogo. The etymology of Diego is disputed, with two major origin hypotheses: ''Tiago'' and ''Didacus''. The name also has several

patronym A patronymic, or patronym, is a component of a personal name based on the given name of one's father, grandfather (more specifically an avonymic), or an earlier male ancestor. It is the male equivalent of a matronymic. Patronymics are used, ...

ic derivations, listed below.

Etymology

''Tiago'' hypothesis

Diego has long been interpreted as variant of ''Tiago'' (also spelled as '' Thiago''), an abbreviation of ''Santiago'', from the older ''Sant Yago'' "Saint

Jacob Jacob, later known as Israel, is a Hebrew patriarch of the Abrahamic religions. He first appears in the Torah, where he is described in the Book of Genesis as a son of Isaac and Rebecca. Accordingly, alongside his older fraternal twin brother E ...

", in English known as Saint James or as ''San-Tiago'' (

cf. The abbreviation cf. (short for either Latin or , both meaning 'compare') is generally used in writing to refer the reader to other material to make a comparison with the topic being discussed. However some sources offer differing or even contr ...

San Diego San Diego ( , ) is a city on the Pacific coast of Southern California, adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a population of over 1.4 million, it is the List of United States cities by population, eighth-most populous city in t ...

''). This has been the standard interpretation of the name since at least the 19th century, as it was reported by

Robert Southey Robert Southey (; 12 August 1774 – 21 March 1843) was an English poet of the Romantic poetry, Romantic school, and Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom, Poet Laureate from 1813 until his death. Like the other Lake Poets, William Wordsworth an ...

in 1808 and by Apolinar Rato y Hevia (1891). The suggestion that this identification may be a

folk etymology Folk etymology – also known as (generative) popular etymology, analogical reformation, (morphological) reanalysis and etymological reinterpretation – is a change in a word or phrase resulting from the replacement of an unfamiliar form by a mo ...

, 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.

''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" (). 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: 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 of all kno ...

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 Celtic, Celtics or Keltic may refer to: Language and ethnicity *pertaining to Celts, a collection of Indo-European peoples in Europe and Anatolia **Celts (modern) *Celtic languages **Proto-Celtic language *Celtic music *Celtic nations Sports Foot ...

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 ''El Cantar de mio Cid'', or ''El Poema de mio Cid'' ("The Song of My Cid"; "The Poem of My Cid"), is an anonymous '' cantar de gesta'' and the oldest preserved Castilian epic poem. Based on a true story, it tells of the deeds of the Castilian h ...

'', 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 Asun ...

(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 Diego Laynez, S.J. (1512 – 19 January 1565; first name sometimes translated James, Jacob; surname also spelled Laines, Lainez, Laínez) was a Spanish Jesuit priest and theologian, a New Christian (of converted Jewish descent), and the second ...

, 1512–1565. The city of

was named for the flagship of

Sebastián Vizcaíno Sebastián Vizcaíno (c. 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 ...

(1602), which was itself named for

Didacus of Alcalá Didacus of Alcalá (), also known as Diego de San Nicolás, was a Spanish Franciscan lay brother who served among the first group of missionaries to the newly conquered Canary Islands. He died at Alcalá de Henares on 12 November 1463 and is ho ...

(d. 1463).

As a patronym

The

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 Rodrigo Díaz de Vivar ( – 10 July 1099) was a Castilian knight and ruler in medieval Spain. Fighting both with Christian and Muslim armies during his lifetime, he earned the Arabic honorific ("the Lord" or "the Master"), which would evolve i ...

) and '' Dias'' in Portuguese. Like many patronymics, these have become common surnames among Iberophones worldwide. The form ''Diéguez'' is much less common; ''Diegues'' can be found in

Lusophone The Portuguese-speaking world, also known as the Lusophone world () or the Lusophony (''Lusofonia''), comprises the countries and territories in which the Portuguese language is an official, administrative, cultural, or secondary language. This ...

countries. ''Diego'' and ''de Diego'' can also be found as surnames.

As an ethnic term

"Diego" as a

metonym Metonymy () is a figure of speech in which a concept is referred to by the name of something associated with that thing or concept. For example, the word "wikt:suit, suit" may refer to a person from groups commonly wearing business attire, such ...

for a

Spaniard Spaniards, or Spanish people, are a Romance languages, Romance-speaking Ethnicity, ethnic group native to the Iberian Peninsula, primarily associated with the modern Nation state, nation-state of Spain. Genetics, Genetically and Ethnolinguisti ...

is documented from around 1615. The term " Dago" 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, ethnophaulisms, or ethnic epithets that are, or have been, used as insinuations or allegations about members of a given ethnic, national, or racial group or to refer to them in a derogatory, pej ...

applied chiefly to

Italian Americans Italian Americans () are Americans who have full or partial Italians, Italian ancestry. The largest concentrations of Italian Americans are in the urban Northeastern United States, Northeast and industrial Midwestern United States, Midwestern ...

, besides also for anyone of

or Portuguese descent.

References