The correct way to pronounce Santiago

Bless poor little Santi. His name is going to be butchered his whole life...and it doesn't help that he has a "different" middle name and a crazy last name too!

Santi is much of the time the center of attention. I have never in my life spoken to so many strangers. Santi loves to be outside so Nolan and I take him on walks in downtown Franklin almost every night. We get stopped ALL the time. "Oh he is so adorable", "can you even believe that smile?", "oh my gosh his socks look like shoes, how cute!" Then the inevitable question is asked, what is his name? Everyone goes from a huge smile to a little bit of a confused face when we say Santiago. Then there is a bit of a pause, just to make things a little awkward, "Oooohhhhh, *pause again*, thats cute (said in a very why the heck would you name your child that kind of way). If Im with Nolan it isn't as bad, but when its just me and Santi people are totally weirded out. I always try and make things a little less awkward by saying, "its James in Spanish." How many times have people then said, "oh Ill just call him James then, thats so much easier." Umm....ok sure, thats not his name though. Thats like saying, oh your name is George? Well Ill just call you Jorge. Its the same, but not!

To make matters worse his middle name is hard for Spanish speakers to pronounce, Job. So the poor guy is going to loose in one language or the other. I on the other hand LOVE his names, all of them. Nolan and I really wanted a Spanish and English name, but we didn't want either to be common in either language...oh and they had to go together. Ahhhh! So much harder than we thought. Santi didn't have a name until the day after he was born when the doctors told us we had to decide! Santiago is a beautiful Spanish name meaning James, and Job is an amazing man in the Bible who never gave up his faith regardless of what horrible things happened to him.

I wont even go into the last name. Portuguese name, but from Peru. Oh my! I do have to say my absolute favorite is the way a computer tries to pronounce it! Hahaha! Always a good laugh!

So, how do you pronounce Santiago? S is normal (yipi), an is pronounced like on (turn on the light) not an like ant (thats the main way it is mispronounced!), ti like tea, a like you are opening your mouth for the dentist, go like you would think...go. We always call him Santi though.

Just for fun, here is a video of Santi laughing.

Also just for fun, here is Sanit's newest trick...DROOL! 

Everywhere and all the time!!!!