Cipac (MH653r)

This name is a day sign. Originally, a name like this would have a number attached to it. But calendrical names were evolving at the time of this manuscript (1560), often dropping their numbers. This day sign comes from the tonalpohualli, the 260-day divinatory calendar. Calendrics figure importantly in Nahuas' religious views of the cosmos. The thirteen-day cycle that was started by One-Cipactli was an auspicious time to be born according to a downloadable publication hosted by Mexicolore.

Perhaps this stylized version of the cipactli (alligator, crocodile, or caiman) is meant to disguise that the family who named their baby this were still consulting the calendar, a practice that some friars had hoped to root out. The crocodile was a double for the divine force or deity, Tonacatecuhtli, creator of the universe and the human race, according to Anastasia Kalyuta, also publishing in Mexicolore. This glyph may represent that divine force instead of the crocodile.