Santo Domingo - Why not San Domingo

[BobRitter]

Acabo de ver un vídeo sobre Yabla sobre santo/san.

¿Santo Domingo es una excepción a la regla general?

Santo se convierte en san antes de un sustantivo masculino.

Juan es un santo, San Juan.

Gracias.

[poli]

I think if a male saint's name begins with do or to, it is best to proceed their name with santo. It is this way for clarity sake.

btw: If this really is a rute, I don't think it's etched in stone, because I have heard Santo Toribio spoken as San Toribio.

[AngelicaDeAlquezar]

"San" is the norm, but the exceptions are for specific names. According to the RAE (http://lema.rae.es/dpd/srv/search?id=s4MdZOY0WD60Gs8JXn), these exceptions are: Domingo, Tomás, Toribio and Tomé (like the African Country).

So it's said:

- Santa Marta, Santa Catalina, Santa Rosa...
- San Martín, San Felipe, San Homobono...
- Santo Domingo, Santo Tomás, Santo Toribio y Santo Tomé y Príncipe.

Santiago is one that causes confusion too, because people can say "Santiago" without "San", "San Santiago" or even "Santo Santiago". I think the correct form for this one is "San Santiago", but I can't be sure. :thinking:

[BobRitter]

Gracias a todos. Es como pensaba.