Huitzilihuitl (MH487v)
This black-line drawing of the simplex glyph for the personal name Huitzilihuitl (here, attested as a man’s name) shows the head of a hummingbird (huitzilin) in profile, looking toward the viewer's right. It has the diagnostic long beak. The feathers on its head are textured around the perimeter. They are not so prominent, perhaps, as to account for the second part of the name "-ihuitl" ("Feather"), hence the designation as a simplex glyph.
Stephanie Wood
This name is one of those where a fairly average citizen was given the name of someone famous. According to Wikipedia, "Huitzilihuitl or Huitzilihuitzin was the second Tlatoani or king of Tenochtitlan. According to the Codex Chimalpahin, he reigned from 1390 to 1415, according to the Codex Aubin, he reigned from 1396 to 1417 and according to the Codex Chimalpopoca, he reigned from 1403 to 1417."
Stephanie Wood
Juā vitziguitl
Juan Huitzilihuitl
Stephanie Wood
1560
Stephanie Wood
hummingbirds, colibríes, feathers, plumas
huitzil(in), hummingbird, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/huitzilin.
ihui(tl), feather, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/ihuitl.
Pluma de Colibrí
Stephanie Wood
Matrícula de Huexotzinco, folio 487r, World Digital Library, https://www.loc.gov/resource/gdcwdl.wdl_15282/?sp=53&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).