Chacuil (MH875v)
This black-line drawing of the simplex glyph for the personal name Chacuil (perhaps “He Painted”) is attested here as a man’s name. The glyph shows a chalchihuitl (jadeite or greenstone) bead with four small circles evenly spaced around the perimeter (perhaps for vibrance). Coming up from the precious stone are two volutes, perhaps suggesting a type of speech or some writing/painting (cuiloa). Their curling shapes are typically associated with writing and painting, as well as speaking.
Stephanie Wood
This is the only attestation of the verb chacuiloa, if that is indeed the root of this name, found in this digital collection three years into its making and with over 6K records. It is hoped that more examples will emerge to help advance the decipherment.
Stephanie Wood
dio. chacuil
Diego Chacuil
Stephanie Wood
1560
Jeff Haskett-Wood
piedras preciosas, hades, chalchihuites, brillo, vitalidad, escribir, pintar, nombres de hombres

chalchihui(tl), jade or greenstone, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/chalchihuitl
cuiloa, to write-paint (verb), https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/cuiloa
icuiloa, to paint/write, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/icuiloa
chacuiloa, to paint or to sign, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/chacuiloa
posiblemente, Él Pintó
Stephanie Wood
Matrícula de Huexotzinco, folio 875v, World Digital Library, https://www.loc.gov/resource/gdcwdl.wdl_15282/?sp=823&st=image.
This manuscript is hosted by the Library of Congress and the World Digital Library; used here with the Creative Commons, “Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 License” (CC-BY-NC-SAq 3.0).
