Tecapan (MH507v)

The gloss indicates an "m" or an "n" in the middle of this name, but Tecapan is the spelling as attested elsewhere in the name Tecapanton (little Tecapan). There was also a famous Tecapantzin who was the daughter of a great lord of Tlatelolco, as shown in our Online Nahuatl Dictionary. And then there is the near homonym, Tiacapan ("First Born"), a birth-order name given to women in particular. So, the full analysis remains elusive, but the the visual of a mouth full of teeth ready to bite something recalls the noun, tecampaxoliztli, which is the act of biting. In this word, the "m" does appear in the middle and no "n" after the pa. The letter "n" can be intrusive and can be dropped, which complicates the analysis sometimes. The mouth (tentli} in this glyph, if it does not play a semantic role, may provide the phonetic start to the name.