Where the Santos name comes from

Santos means "saints", the plural of santo in both Spanish and Portuguese. Its origin is Christian, and the word goes back to the Latin sanctus. It took hold as an Italian, Spanish, Portuguese and Maltese surname, and a singular form, Santo, also occurs. The Italian name comes from santu in Sicilian and Neapolitan, and it was later taken up as a given name.

Related forms such as De Santo, Del Santo, Santi and Santis are also very common in Argentina, Chile and Uruguay. Spanish carried Santos into Cebuano, Hiligaynon, Kapampangan and Tagalog. Brazil's 2022 census counted 21,367,475 people named Santos, making it the country's second most common surname. The 2010 United States census ranked it 206th, carried by 137,232 people.