Chimalman (MH632v)

The jury is still out, but if the name ends in -man, this would render a translation of "In the Manner of a Shield" or "Like a Shield." If the second part of her name is -ma, then some see a reference to the hand (maitl), and thus some translate her name as "Shield Bearer."

Chimalman was the name of a famous woman and deity bearer in the migration from Aztlan. She has also been described, as explained in our Online Nahuatl Dictionary, as a possible daughter of Quetzalcoatl and wife of Mixcoatl. In this case, from the Matrícula de Huexotzinco, the name is being used by what may be a macehualli woman. She does not have a title by her name, such as the imported term from Spanish, doña.

The gloss for this glyph inadvertently drops the final 'n' off of the name Chimalman, unless, as already noted, her name is indeed Chimalman. Across multiple manuscripts, it is written with and without the final "n," and the intrusive "n" and the omitted "n" are so common across alphabetic Nahuatl, that it is difficult to know for certain which spelling is the norm.