Ethnicity, Caste, and Rulership in Mixquiahuala, México

Naming Practices

Naming patterns in Mixquiahuala changed dramatically over the period sampled. In the earliest, Nahuatl records, almost all individuals have Nahuatl second names and Spanish baptismal names. A plurality of the men have animal names, particularly Cuixtli, or "hawk," a variant of the standard cuixin, while a plurality of the women have floral names. Once the records switch to Spanish, very few Nahuatl names appear, but many more Otomi ones do. By the late seventeenth century, few women and even fewer men have Otomi names, and by the early eighteenth century almost none do. The most common Otomi name is Deni, "flower," which is clearly tied to the profusion of floral names in the Nahuatl records. Otomi names, particularly Deni, do occur in some of the other 1718 padrones.

By the early eighteenth century almost all of the noblemen and many commoners are using inherited surnames. Some of these surnames occur as early as the late sixteenth century, although it is not yet clear whether any were passed through the same family over the intervening period. Many nobles have multiple surnames, and may appear in different records using different ones. Thus Manuel Joseph, son of don Agustin de la Cruz y Mendoza and doña Maria de los Reyes Sanchez y Granada, used the names de la Cruz y Mendoza, de Mendoza, and de los Reyes on different occasions. Females are less likely to use surnames at all times and even noblewomen who appear with surnames in some places may be referred to by two first names elsewhere. Women also used a smaller selection of names, with "Maria" in particular far more common than any one male name.

At the same time, women sometimes inherited and passed down names independently of their husbands, as in the example of Maria Ysabel Ximenez above. In some families, it appears that daughters used their mother’s surname and sons their father’s, for instance Manuel Joseph de Mendoza’s sister Angela de los Reyes. In others, some or all sons may have used their mother’s name. This suggests that indigenous inheritance patterns may have been more bilateral, although there may have been a patrilineal bias even before acculturation to Spanish norms.

There is one solid example of surname translation from Otomi to Spanish. Miguel Ntzehe, son of Juan Ntzehe and Ana Maria, married Chatarina de Aguilar in 1689. The baptisms of seven of their children are recorded between 1691 and 1708. These entries are recognizable by the pairing of Miguel and Chatarina, both rare baptismal names, not by the last names. Miguel uses orthographic variants of Ntzehe four times, Martin once, de la Cruz once, and Benido once. Chatarina, or Catherina, uses de Aguilar three times, Maria three times, and Angela once. The reason for Martin and de la Cruz remains unclear, but Benido, or Venido, is a direct translation of Tzehe, which appears to be derived from the Otomi root for "to arrive." The N- or En- before Tzehe and many other Otomi names is a common prefix in personal names. Another Tecpatepec couple, Joseph Venido and Monica Juana, were listed in the padrón of 1718. They used a similar array of names over the course of twelve baptisms between 1674 and 1700: both Joseph Tzehe or Ntzehe, Monica Maria or Deni.

Another possible case of translation is provided by Nicolas de Aguilar, son of Diego Ntzni and Juana Maria, who married Magdalena de Torres in 1690. At his marriage, he used the name Ntzni; in all subsequent records until his burial in 1708, he used de Aguilar. While de Aguilar is not an unusual Spanish name, it is tantalizing to consider its root, aguila, which is nxöni (Urbano 1990, Wallis 1956-note that both my transcriptions and the variable priestly orthography make Otomi vowels even more difficult to interpret than usual!). Xini and Enxini appear to be other orthographic variants of the same name. Antonio de Aguilar and Melchora Maria baptized three children between 1682 and 1688; in two of the entries he is named Nxöni (the vowel is actually written with a character that is irreproducible on this keyboard but is known to be equivalent to that modern spelling).

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