WHAT IS "JAMES" IN CHAMORRO?

Follow me now.  Take it all in slowly.

But "James" in Chamorro is, mainly, SANTIAGO.

OK, follow me now.

It all starts with the Hebrew name Yaakov.  In English, we know it as Jacob.

But in Latin, which was the language used by the Church for thousands of years all over Western Europe, Yaakov is Jacobus.

In Latin, the J sounds like an I or a Y.  So sometimes it was spelled Iacobus.

To shorten it, the Spaniards would say Iago (from Iacobus).

Now, "saint" in Latin is "sanctus."

To shorten "sanctus," the Spaniards turn it into "San" or "Santo."

 

SANTO + IAGO = SANTIAGO

But there are two other versions of James in Spanish/Chamorro.

Santiago also got shortened to Tiago (a name found in Portugal and Brazil), and from Tiago we get Diego.  So Diego is another form of Santiago.

To confuse you some more, Diego is also the Spanish form of the Latin name Didacus.  But that's enough of that.

Finally, there is the form Jaime.  In Spanish and Chamorro, that would be pronounced HAI - MEH.

Jaime also comes from a shortening of Jacobus because at first it was shortened to Jaume, and from Jaume to Jaime.

Even in English, we see the progression :

JACOBUS becomes JACOME (in parts of France)

 

JACOME becomes JAMES (in England)