MARIA SANTIAGO

Latin form of Mary. It arose as a back-formation from the early Christian female name Mariam, which was taken as a Latin accusative case. In fact, however, it is an indeclinable Aramaic alternative form of the Hebrew name Miriam. In the English-speaking world Maria is a learned revival dating from the 18th century, pronounced both ‘ma-ree-a’ and, more traditionally, ‘ma-rye-a’. This form of the name is also in common use in most European languages, either as the main local form of the name, as in Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, German, Dutch, Scandinavian, Polish, and Czech, or as a learned doublet of a vernacular form. In Spain not only is the name María itself enormously common, but a large number of Marian epithets and words associated with the cult of the Virgin are also used as female given names. Maria is also used as a male name in combinations such as Gianmaria (Italian) and José María (Spanish).

Galician, Portuguese, and Spanish: habitational name from any of the numerous places named for the dedication of their churches to St. James (Sant Iago). The apostle St. James the Greater is the patron saint of Spain; there is a medieval legend that, after the death of Christ, he did not meet a speedy end under Herod Agrippa, but visited and evangelized the Iberian peninsula. His alleged burial site at Compostela has been a place of pilgrimage from all over Europe for over a thousand years.