Santu

Spellings & scripts●

Locally spelled San in PE Peru, MX Mexico, SV El Salvador and 14 more, Sal in US United States, สัณห์ in TH Thailand and Sani in NG Nigeria.

Spellings marked ● are how people bearing the name write it in our records; ○ marks a model's transliteration. Click a spelling to open its page.

Meaning & origin

No verified etymology recorded for this name yet — the entries below are drawn from usage statistics and the name graph.

Attested across 13 languages in the etymology graph.

Languages●

Language is read off each record's context, not declared by the bearer; a share is of all records for this spelling.

Other names spelled this way◐

Santu is also recorded as 3 other names, grouped separately because the records behind them do not connect to the one described above.

• a separate given name81K records spelled Santu3 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in India, United States

  Also written Sāṇṭu, Santū

• Spanish given name1.4K records spelled Santu8 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in India, Argentina, United States, Mexico

  Languages: Spanish, Portuguese

  Also written Santú, Santù, Sàñtú, Santü, Säñtü

• Arabic given name1.3K records spelled Santu5 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in India, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Qatar

  Languages: Arabic, Hebrew, Amharic

  Also written Santū

35 further groups record this spelling and are not listed here.

Grouping is the name graph's, not a register's: two spellings join a group when the evidence links them, so a group is a claim about the records rather than about the people.

Other recorded senses●

Santu is also recorded in 6 other lexicons, as a different name or as an ordinary word. These are senses of the spelling, not of the name above.

• In pi, third-person plural imperative active of atthi (“to be”)

  as a word·kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)

• In Indonesian, nonstandard form of santo (“saint”)

  as a word·kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)

• In Maltese, saint (male or of unspecified sex)

  as a word·kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)

• In scn, a saint

  as a word·kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)

• In Asturian, holy

  as a word·kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)

• In pap, sand

  as a word·kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)

Ordered by how much of this spelling's record each language holds, so a sense from a language the name is barely used in sits last rather than first.

Over time●

IN naampy — India given names from state electoral rolls (in-rolls) — 93 years between 1916–2015. One register's own figures, never a sum across registers: two registers counting the same people would double them.

Evidence●

Register rows as of the 2026-09-12 data build · 204 rows in the corpus for this spelling.

Frequently asked questions

How common is the name Santu?

We estimate roughly 8.6 thousand people bear Santu (counting its spellings and scripts) across 7 countries in our records.

In which country does Santu have the most bearers?

Santu is most frequently recorded in Peru, where it is most often spelled san.

Is Santu a male or female name?

Santu is a male name in our records. Opposite-gender entries fall within the cross-gender noise we measure in the source data, so we don't report them as usage.