`Sancho'

[Rick Mc Callister]

[snip]

>Yes, the personal name `Sancho' is associated above all with the
>medieval Kingdom of Navarre, which was predominantly Basque-speaking at
>the time.  The most famous bearers of the name were the Kings of
>Navarre, who were certainly Basques.  In all likelihood, we are looking
>at a Basque name, though not necessarily one of ultimately Basque
>origin.  This name is totally opaque in Basque, and I am aware of no
>plausible etymology for it.
[my editing]
>By the way, is it certain that <Santo(s)> is a development of <Sancho>?

	Not quite, they are cognate, both are from /sanktu-/

	<sancho> shows up in Old Spanish for <santo> "holy, saint" and does
conform to a greater degree to the usual treatment of Latin /-kt-/, which
normally becomes /ch/ in Spanish words inherited from Latin --as opposed to
Latinate loanwords e.g. leche < lacte-, hecho < factu-, dicho < dictu- ,
etc.
	Taking this into acount, <santo> looks more like a loan word.
	But Antso < Santso, while it definitely looks cognate to <sancho>,
<santo>, looks a bit askew given that Basque does have /ch/ yet we don't
see *Santxo /sancho/. So it didn't come from <sancho>. And Old Spanish had
/ts/ but we don't see *Sanzo /santso > sanso or Santho/.
	So, is Old Basque Santso from some other Romance language, i.e.
Gascon or a dialect of Aragonese or directly from Latin?

>It should be borne in mind that medieval Romance names which were taken
>into Basque often developed very distinctive Basque forms.  For example,
>it is hardly obvious that <Orti> is merely the Basque form of the
>medieval Spanish given name <Fortu'n>, or that <Manex> is a vernacular
>form of the name which appears in French as <Jean>.  And you might like
>to puzzle over how it is that the traditional Basque form of `Jim' is
><Xanti> -- the etymology is straightforward if you know one or two
>things about Spanish personal names.

	Sure, Xanti looks like Santiago but the others are straight from
hell :>

[snip]
>However, <Pantxo> or
><Pantxoa> is still a vernacular form of <Francois> in the French Basque
>Country, though the southern Basques prefer <Patxi> as their equivalent
>of <Francisco>.  The first French Basque woman I ever met was called
><Francoise> in French, <Pantxika> in Basque, and I've more recently come
>across another French Basque with the same two names.

	So Pantxika is not just a Basque spelling of Spanish Panchica?
	Then can we blame Pancho and Paco on the Basques?

[snip]