indicate the level to which a name has been verified.
Meaning & History
A patronym, Jago is the Cornish for James/Jacob but is most commonly found as a surname. It’s use as a surname dates back to the early 13th Century.We are on solid, consensual ground when we cite Jago deriving from Biblical Jacob but there has been some speculation whether Jago as a given name could predate the introduction of Christianity in Cornwall. One theory is that Jago derived from a proto-Celtic: “gago”, meaning spear. If this is true, this would make Jago cognate with “javelin”. Whilst this theory is a little fanciful, it is plausible that Jago had a Celtic origin which the Christians conveniently dovetailed into Jacob. However, we should take Geoffrey of Monmouth’s (c. 1100 – c. 1155) inclusion of an ancient King Jago in his annals of the Kings of Britain with a large pinch of salt since he was primarily a storyteller telling a good yarn.