30 May 2025 / 10 House
Article suitable for Top Juniors and above
Find out moreHow do I go about choosing an Aztec name?
Aztec day sign and/or name 6-Vulture
ORIGINAL QUESTION received from - and thanks to - Jair Quintero-Carrera: I know this is a long shot but I was brought to another country when I was 3. For most of my life I have been disconnected from my heritage and culture. I want to take an Aztec name but I’m not sure how to go about it. Where to look or who to ask. I draw so I would love to take an Aztec name so that in some way I can reconnect with my heritage through my art. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you for your time (Answered by Ian Mursell/Mexicolore)
We strongly support you in your quest!
We would suggest the following steps:-
1) Work out your calendar name by converting your birthdate into the ‘Aztec calendar’ equivalent - the simplest way to do this is to follow the link below to the ‘azteccalendar.com’ website (they’re our friends and we gave them permission years ago to use our lovely Aztec day signs designed specially for us by Felipe Dávalos). Please note, this gives a good approximation but it’s seriously difficult to be 100% sure of the equivalent. An example is our main picture, ‘6-Vulture’: you can see the name is a combination of a number (1-13) and one of 20 day or calendar signs.
2) Knowing your birth date (and hence calendar name) in the Mexica calendar is only half the story (as there are only 260 possibilities [13x20], you need to distinguish yourself from thousands of others with the same birthdate!); so you now need to create for yourself a nickname...
3) For your Aztec nickname, you should opt for some distinguishing feature of yours - some aspect of your physical appearance, personality, a key trait, an animal you particularly relate to, etc. This is very much your personal preference. To give you inspiration, follow the link below to Common Nahuatl Names to get an idea of popular names in the days of the Aztecs/Mexica; note that they loved to be associated with a particular animal - this might well have been their nahualli or spirit guide, and follow the link to ‘Aztec Surnames...’ where you can see many examples of ‘Aztec’ surnames in use today in modern Mexico. Again to help you, read Warwick Bray’s excellent introduction to Aztec names, which we’ve made the basis of our ‘Basic Facts: Aztec Names’ entry in our kids section (link below). We show (above) an example, taken from the Codex Mendoza - a lord of Tlatelolco named ‘He Speaks Like an Eagle’ - ie, eloquently - consisting of two glyphs, the speech/sound symbol and an eagle icon.
Why not also look on social media for examples of Mexica names adopted today? We’ve seen Tecpaocelotl (Flint-Jaguar), Chicnahui Ocelotl (9-Jaguar), Yaotl (Warrior), Tlatoani Cuauhtemoc (Ruler Who Has Descended Like An Eagle), etc.
4) So your final Aztec name, using the straightforward examples we’ve shown here, would be: 6-Vulture, He Speaks Like an Eagle. if you want this in the Aztec language Nahuatl, it would be Chicuace Cozcacuauhtli, Cuauhtlatoa. Note that we’ve given you the names for all the 20 Aztec day signs in Nahuatl in the image above.
If you’re after some serious inspiration here, consult a new, superb, beautifully illustrated and highly respected source, Gordon Whittaker’s new (2021) book Deciphering Aztec Hieroglyphs - A Guide to Nahuatl Writing. You’ll learn from it just how sophisticated and clever the Mexica were in their writing; he includes some 85 examples of names, carefully explaining how each one ‘works’ visually and phonetically.
Good luck, and let us know how you get on...!
Picture sources:-
• Main: image scanned from our own copy of Painting The Conquest by Serge Gruzinski, Flammarion, 1992
• Image from the Codex Mendoza scanned from our own copy of the James Cooper Clark 1938 facsimile edition, London.
Comments (13)
Jaime
24th Jan 2025
How would I make the words Cuauhtli and izcalia into a name? I’m not too sure how it goes, since I have the eagle for my birth date and I want to put reborn/come to life alongside with it.
Mexicolore
Thanks to our friends at the Project Hunab Ku in Puebla, here are their suggestions:-
As the eagle that is reborn, it would be something like moizcalcuauhtli, “el águila que (se) resucita”.
As the eagle capable of bringing something to life, it could be teizcalcuauhtli, “el águila que revive gente”; tlaizcalcuauhtli, “el águila que revive lo inerte en general”; and nezcalcuauhtli, “el águila que revive”, but in an abstract sense.
And just izcalcuauhtli, would be “el águila del renacimiento”; and cuauhizcalli would be “el renacimiento águila” with all that it implies.
Zonë Carelock
17th Jan 2025
Hi, can I get an answer for what would these three names be? this tonalli is 11-Ollin it’s a girl.
the next tonalli is 1-tecpatl
the next one is 4-ollin.
Mexicolore
Well done, you’ve worked out the calendar name(s). Now you need to choose a nickname - as we’ve explained to others below...
Ryan K.
20th Sep 2024
My sign is 11-Ollin. I would like to combine it with hummingbird. What would the complete Nahuatl name be?
Mexicolore
We believe it would be Mahtlactli huan ce Ollin, Huitzilin.
Herminio Perez
23rd Mar 2024
My sign is dog and I found a word that means to act with kindness tlaicneliliztli how would you put the two words together in Nahuatl to create my name?
Mexicolore
There were different breeds of dog in Aztec Mexico. You could research this (Book XI of the Florentine Codex) in order to choose a Nahuatl term to suit your personal preference. Alternatively, you could use the ‘standard’, generic Nahuatl term for dog itzcuintli.
The verb at the root of tlaicneliliztli is icnelia meaning to help, befriend, be kind to someone. tlaicneliliztli is a noun meaning kindness, not a verb. So we suggest taking the verbal root icnelia, perhaps adding the suffix as it implies a passive tense indicator. So here are a few possibilities:-
IcneliloItzcuintli, Itzcuin(tli)Icnelilo; or maybe something shorter like IcneliItzcuintli. This last one seems to fit the bill best, we think.
Our thanks to friends at the project Hunab Ku in Puebla for their guidance on this.
Guillermo Almanza
20th Mar 2024
My day sign is lizard and I want to add “hungry” or “fasting” to it. What would the name be?
Mexicolore
Hungry in Nahuatl is teocihuini, so Hungry Lizard would be Teocihuinicuetzpalin. Fasting Coyote was the name of a famous ruler of Texcoco - Nezahualcoyotl. So you could make yours Nezahualcuetzpalin.
Ismael Sandoval
9th Feb 2024
Hello! My Tonalli is 11 - Xochitl, my trecena is Itzcuintli and my Xihuitl is 9 - Acatl.
Can you help with my name please? THANK YOU
Mexicolore
Now you’ve worked out your full calendrical name, only you (possibly with the help of friends/family) can choose an appropriate nickname for yourself, based on your own characteristics - as in the example we gave Aline, below...
Ethan Perez
17th Nov 2023
my tonalli is 11-cuetzpalin, my trecena was ocelotl and my year was 8-acatl what would be my name?
Mexicolore
It’s the tonalli that determines your calendar name, 11-Lizard. You then have to choose your own nickname... As in the case of Aline, below.
Aline Quintanilla
30th Sep 2023
I like the word “She’s devoted like a dog” it just speaks to me. I wonder what name will that be.
Mexicolore
‘Devoted’ or ‘loyal’ in Nahuatl is nehuelyollotiloni...
Aline Quintanilla
30th Sep 2023
I check the azteccalendar.com and my tonalli was the 10- itzcuintli also my trecena was the 13 day period cipactli. My year was 5- tecpatl. I’m not sure what is my name though.
Mexicolore
Your calendar name would be the first of these: 10-Dog in English; then you need a nickname to go with it...
証
11th Sep 2023
I’m developing a Mexica character and your site has been an invaluable resource. I wanted to name her “She Vomits Blood,” a name she gains after a health scare. I’ve come up with “Eztlizotla” based on eztli and izotla, but is it a natural-sounding compound for classical Nahuatl? What might the best translation be?
Mexicolore
This seems right to us, but we’re not Nahuatl experts! We’ve seen ihzotla more commonly written with the ‘h’, so we suggest Eztlihzotla as the name.
TheGrouch79
14th Jul 2023
Thank you!
Joe Garcia Rico Jr
30th Jun 2022
I would like to know how my name would be spelled in Aztec and in Aztec symbols
Mexicolore
We don’t have an immediate answer for you; finding phonetic equivalents is no easy task - made harder because in Nahuatl there are no words beginning with J, G or R!!
Jair A Quintero-Carrera
23rd Jul 2021
Hello! Thank you so very much for your response. I spent a lot of time thinking about your answer and reading thru the articles. According to Caso/Nicholson alignment my calendar name is 5-Jaguar. In the Rodriguez Cortez I am 8-Ollin. But after much thought I decided on turquoise jaguar. Would I be correct in concluding that the name would be Xiuhocelotl in Nahuatl? Thank you for all your time and help.
Mexicolore
Thanks, Jair. We’re not Nahuatl experts, but yes, this looks correct to us... All best wishes.
Aztec day sign and/or name 6-Vulture
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