Saints

[Sancho Panther]

I used to know the rule for when to employ 'Santo' and when to use 'San', but now I can't bring it to mind, would someone be kind enough to remind me?

[AngelicaDeAlquezar]

I don't know if this is a rule, but:

One uses "San" when it's a title before the name, like in "San Antonio", "San Pedro", "San Juan"..., with the exception of "Santo Tomás" (I don't know why). "Santa" never changes ("Santa María", "Santa Ana", "Santa Lucía"...)

"Santo" when one is talking about the quality of a person: "Mi mamá es una santa", "Juan tiene paciencia de santo", "El santo padre de la iglesia", "La santa que hace caridad en el pueblo", "Los santos médicos que vinieron a ayudarnos"...

[Caballero]

San is used before names, unless they start with a t or d.

[AngelicaDeAlquezar]

I'm not sure that rule is valid: I've never seen "Santo Torcuato" or "Santo Daniel", but "San Torcuato" or "San Daniel". :thinking:

Edit:

According to the Diccionario Panhispánico de dudas (http://buscon.rae.es/dpdI/SrvltConsulta?lema=santo), "santo", as a title, goes before Domingo, Tomás, Tomé and Toribio. In all other cases, it shall be "san".

And there is a little note too on the capital letter:

"Santo" or "santa" are not written with a capital letter, except when they're abbreviations like "san Luis" -> "S. Luis".
The exception is made when the title is traditionally associated to a proper name, like in "San Juan" (for San Juan de la Cruz) or "Santa Teresa" (for Santa Teresa de Jesús).
They're also written with a capital letter when the're names of places, streets, institutions, buildings, proper names, etc., like in "plaza de Santa Bárbara", "Hermandad de San Roque", "Hospital de San Rafael", "Pedro San Martín".

[pjt33]

I don't know if this is a rule, but:

One uses "San" when it's a title before the name, like in "San Antonio", "San Pedro", "San Juan"..., with the exception of "Santo Tomás" (I don't know why).
Para que no se confunda con Santo Más. Si miras la lista de nombres que has sacado del DPD son los que empiezan con To o Do (que son muy parecidos fonéticamente).

[irmamar]

Y luego está Santiago, que no tiene "título" porque se unieron las palabras "sant" e "Iago". ;)

[Caballero]

From Latin Sanctus *(“holy, saint”) Iacobus *(“James”).

c > g is a common change from Latin to Spanish.

[ROBINDESBOIS]

How interesting, I never stopped to think about it.