SantiagoSantiago

The story

From Spanish Santiago, elision of earlier Sant'Iago and Sant Iago, from Latin Sanctus Iācōbus (‘Saint James or holy James’), the latter word deriving from Ancient Greek Ἰάκωβος (Iákōbos), from Biblical Hebrew יַעֲקֹב (yaʿăqōḇ, literally “May He Heel”), from the third-person singular masculine imperfective form of the Semitic verb "to heel" (with various meanings), in turn from עָקֵב (ʿāqēḇ, “heel of the foot”), historically mediated by the folk etymology found in Biblical account of the patriarch Jacob's birth in Genesis 25:26.1folk etymology The source marks this as unproven or a folk etymology. Quoted, not asserted. Piecewise doublet of Saint James. The Guan Yu sense among Chinese Filipinos in the Philippines is due to a syncretic association of the deified Chinese general with St. James, who are both known for their assertiveness and heroism, which non-Chinese and people in the Philippines like Jose Rizal during the 19th century first associated with and/or surmised the Chinese folk deities venerated by Chinese Filipinos on Chinese altars and prints with popular Christian or Muslim figures.