Welcome, Santiago Kiyoji Schell
Santiago Kiyoji Schell (aka Santi aka Sandy) joined our family on Sunday, May 4, 2025. Hannah and Santiago are both healthy and doing fine, and Bryan and Lucía are over the moon!
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Birth date: May 4, 2025
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Birth time: 12:08 am Eastern Time
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Location: Oceanside, New York
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Weight: 7 pounds, 11 ounces
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Length: 1 foot, 8.5 inches
About Santiago's Name
Like Lucía, we wanted Santiago to have a name that drew from his rich cultural and family background.
Santiago's first name (pronounced sahn-tee-AHH-go) is a Spanish name meaning "Saint James." This name holds significance for our family: Saint James is the patron saint of Spain, where Hannah's maternal family is from and where Hannah, Bryan, and Lucía have all lived at different times in our lives. The symbol of Saint James' pilgrimage route (el Camino de Santiago) is a shell, so Santiago Schell is a fitting name for this proto-adventurer. James is also the name of Bryan's paternal grandfather, the wise and personable patriarch of the Schell family, who died in 2020.
Santiago's middle name is Kiyoji, which is a Japanese name meaning "serene, calm" using the Japanese kanji we chose: 清二 . The name is a tribute to the resilience of family bonds and reunification. Bryan's maternal grandfather Fred Nabeta was separated from his family in Japan during the Second World War and when he finally returned to Japan to see them three decades later, he met his youngest brother, Kiyoji, who had not even been born when Fred left. Hannah and Bryan met this original Kiyoji in 2016!
