Quote Originally Posted by Ascension View Post
St. is just an abbreviation for Saint and Ste is the feminine abbreviation. St. Louis was named for the crusader king King Louis of France. Sometimes in various online forms I have to use the full Saint instead of St.
I checked with a francophone colleague of mine and he confirmed that st is the short form of saint (masculine) and ste is the short form of sainte (feminine form of saint) so a female saint in French is a Sainte (Ste. Anne, Ste. Marie, Ste. Judy). He did check in a french grammar book ,and it indicated that for place names from religious figures it should not be abbreviated, instead the whole Sainte or Saint should be used.

-Rob A>