san

San has several distinct meanings across languages and domains. The most widely known is the San, an indigenous ethnic group of Southern Africa. The San, historically also called Basarwa, are traditionally hunter‑gatherers with cultures spanning parts of Botswana, Namibia, Angola, South Africa, and Zimbabwe. They are noted for detailed knowledge of local ecosystems and rock art. Contemporary concerns include land rights, cultural preservation, and the impacts of modernization.

The term San also designates the San languages, a small language group spoken by the San and neighboring communities. These languages are characterized by extensive use of click consonants and are sometimes classified within the broader Khoisan language family, though linguistic classifications remain debated and some languages have shifted to other families.

In Japanese, san is a common honorific suffix added to personal names to show respect, similar to Mr., Mrs., or Ms. It is widely used in daily address and formal contexts.

Geographically, San appears as a prefix in many place names derived from the Spanish word for "saint." It is used in numerous cities and towns in the Americas and the Philippines, such as San Francisco and San Jose, reflecting religious dedication.

In information technology, SAN stands for storage area network, a dedicated high‑speed network that provides access to consolidated block-level data storage. In TLS certificates, SAN also stands for Subject Alternative Name, an extension that allows a single certificate to secure multiple domain names.

These uses reflect how the same term can denote peoples, languages, respectful address, geographic naming, and technical concepts in unrelated domains.