Etymology

St Clair

Today it means: A seaside suburb of Dunedin, Otago, New Zealand. Full definition →

French Claire ← Latin Sancta ← Italian Chiara
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The story

  1. Italian · derived fromChiara
  2. Latin · borrowed fromSancta
  3. French · derived fromClaire
  4. English todaySt Clair

An abbreviation of Saint Clair, variant of Saint Clare under influence from French Claire, a calque of Latin Sancta Clara (“holy Clara”), chiefly in reference to Italian Chiara Offreduccio, St. Clare of Assisi. The placenames listed below are typically spelt St Clair—abbreviated without punctuation—following Commonwealth practice.

Words from the same roots

FrenchClaire all →

claireSt. Clair

LatinSancta all →

Saint ClareSt. Clair

ItalianChiara all →

ChiaraSaint ClareSt. Clair

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.