Names from Tula de Allende, Mexico, 1590-1599

by Sara L. Uckelman
known in the SCA as Aryanhwy merch Catmael

© 2013, 2014 Sara L. Uckelman; all rights reserved
last updated 17Feb14

Introduction

The following names are from christening records from the parish of San José, Tula de Allende, from between 1590 and 1599, taken from IGI batch C04339-8. These records include the names of the child being christened as well as the names of their parents; since the name pools may show differences between generation, I have noted how many times each name occurs as the name of a child (C), father (F), and mother (M). Because some parents had more than one child christened during the period I have considered (but rarely more than two), this means that the frequency numbers for (F) and (M) may be inflated, as a single person would be counted more than once. However, the frequency numbers of (C) can be used as a relative check. So far, I have entered the data connected with 447 children.

Tula de Allende is a town of about 100,000 people in Hidalgo, central-eastern Mexico. Tula was a center of the Toltec empire in Mesoamerica between c.700 and c. 1085. After the death of the last Toltec ruler, Tula and the area around it was dominated by the Otomis, and then the Aztecs. In 1531, after the Spanish conquest of the Aztec empire, Pedro Miahuazochil was named the lord of Tula, and soon afterwards, around 1546, the monastery of San José was built. This monastery is the center of the town that grew into modern day Tula. Thus, by the 15900s, there had been more than a generation of Spanish influence on the area, and this is clearly shown by the almost exclusive use of Spanish Christian names as given names. On the other hand, the bynames are still predominantly Nahuatl, rather than Spanish. This is because in general, children inherited the surnames of their father, and wives did not use the same surname as their husband. When the child inherited the surname of their mother, this was because the father was either not listed (presumably unknown) or he was recorded by given name only.

abbreviations used

ClN: Classical Nahuatl
Sp: Spanish

Given Names

The given names are almost exclusively Spanish. The two possible exceptions, the feminine Ceciua and Clalla, are not obviously Nahuatl; they could be simply rare Spanish names not otherwise attested.

Feminine Given Names

Masculine Given Names

Surnames

The table of surnames is currently vastly incomplete when it comes to the glosses of the native Nahuatl names; this work is ongoing. However, it is already clear that many of the names derive from or are identical to words for plants. This may in part be a reflection of the fact, noted by Lozano (p. 410), that agriculture was more crucial in the development of urban life in Mesoamerica than it was in other places, where domesticated animals featured heavily in the food supply. Indeed, many of the Nahuatl words which still exist in Spanish (and also in English) today are names of fruits, vegetables, and other plants (Lozano p. 411). One reason that such words would be retained even after the introduction of Spanish as the lingua franca, is that "such terms were necessary to name the plants, foods, and animals unknown in Europe" (Lozano, p. 413). These words were not replaced with native Spanish words because there were no native Spanish terms for these items.

Additional sources consulted

Campbell, R. Joe. 1997. Florentine Codex Vocabulary (WWW).

Lozano, Anthony Girard. 1981. "Aztec Traces in Modern Spanish", Hispania 64, no. 3 (1981): 410-417.

Neuman, Henry. 1809. A New Dictionary of the Spanish and English Languages, in two volumesn, 2nd ed. (London: Printed for J. Johnson).

Smith, Julia (aka Juliana de Luna). 1999-2000. "Spanish Names from the Late 15th Century" (WWW).

Wiktionary

Wimmer, Alexis, Dictionnaire de la langue Nahuatl Classique (WWW).