Quote Originally Posted by Nathan View Post
Like my post above shows, Yacov, Iacobos, Jacobus... even Jacques, Giacomo or Iago...all follow a clear pattern which corresponds to similar letters. Hebrew and Greek have no "J" sound but Latin doesn't typically start names with "Y" hence "Jacobus". Even Iago is similar to Yacov given that it's not much of a shift from "c" to "g". V and B, I and Y, I and J, I and Y are all related letters and sounds. These are often used to approximate a sound when the language doesn't have an exact match. When we get to "James" the middle letter becomes an "m" and it becomes a one syllable name. While there is a Hebrew letter "Mem" it is not used in the original name, and English/Scots has two perfectly good letters with which they could render the sound of the Hebrew letter "Kuf", namely "c" or "k". This is of course evidenced clearly by the similarity between the Old Testament Biblical figure of "Jacob", and his original Hebrew name "Yacov".

While Yacov is transliterated as Jacob in the Old Testament English, it is rendered at James in the New Testament. Similarly the Name Yeshua (alt Yoheshua) is rended at Joshua in the Old Testament but as "Jesus" in the New.

My guess would be that since the Old Testament transliterations are much closer to the original names, perhaps there was a deliberate attempt to make New Testament characters seem less Jewish by drastically changing their names. I don't have a source for this.
"James" is English variation of Iacomus, which is a Late Latin dialect variant of Iacobus, probably created first by nasalizing the "o" and getting "Iacombus", and then gradual dropping of the b in the "mb" combination. In the Greek New Testament, the name is still given as "Iakobos", the standard Greek form of Ya'acov. Later translations use "James", after the name had become common.