Diego

Where the name comes from

• Medieval Latin
  Origin uncertain
  Medieval Latin Didacus (recorded from the 8th century); vernacular Diaco, Diago (10th century); Diego (late 11th century; standard by the 14th)
  Didacus is an Iberian name of unknown origin; Greek, Basque and Celtiberian derivations have been proposed without wide acceptance (Becker, Hispano-romanisches Namenbuch, 2009). The popular reading of Diego as a form of Santiago/James, from Sant Iago heard as San Tiago, is current from at least the early 19th century; the Dictionary of American Family Names calls it "no more than folk etymology" and Becker finds no etymological relation between the two names. Some references still present the Santiago link as possible. A proposed link to Greek didakhē, "teaching", rests on secondary sources only.

Diego across traditions

• Spanish naming tradition. Spanish usage treated Diego as the equivalent of Jacob/James through the 19th and 20th centuries; the Enciclopedia Espasa-Calpe (1920) lists saints named Jacobo under Diego. This is a tradition of usage, not an etymology.
• Catholic. San Diego refers to Saint Didacus of Alcalá, a 15th-century Franciscan, not to Saint James.
• New Mexico. Diego de Vargas led the colonists who resettled New Mexico in 1693 after the Pueblo Revolt. 928 New Mexico boys were named Diego in 2000–2009.

Who carried it

• Diego de Vargas (1643–1704): Governor who led the 1692–93 Spanish return to New Mexico.
• Diego de Acebo (Bishop of Osma, 1201–1207): Castilian bishop, recorded in Latin sources as Didacus; companion of Saint Dominic.

Forms in other languages

Didacus (Latin), Diago, Diogo (Portuguese), Díaz / Díez (patronymic surnames)

Diego in letter-number systems

Hebrew, Greek and other traditions gave every letter a number, and read meaning into the totals. These are the counts, computed; the readings are inside the Innerverse.