Why, in Spanish, is saint sometimes San and sometimes Santa for naming cities?

https://lemmy.ca/post/61778515

Why, in Spanish, is saint sometimes San and sometimes Santa for naming cities? - Lemmy.ca

Lemmy

It’s because nouns in Spanish carry gender! Which is crazy but it works.

“San Francisco” → Francisco is a male name.

“Santa Bárbara” → Baŕbara is a female name.

So is there something we haven’t been told about Claus / Klaus?
My understanding is we have the Dutch to blame for that as they named him “Sante” and Spanish-speaking countries adapted the sound into “a” for whatever reason. Basically it’s “whole” proper name derived from elsewhere.
I think it’s Sinterklaas and it was English-speaking Americans who changed it into Santa Claus. Probably misunderstanding the origin.
Americans also like to mispronounced things and then write down what it sounds like using words they already know.
You say that like it’s unique to us. lol. That’s how language works :)