Tzompan (MH639v)

The actual name may be some kind of tree, as appears in the glyph, or perhaps the glyph is a tree in order to disguise the name Skull Rack. In the Spanish colonial context, one can imagine that artists might have been reluctant to draw a skull rack, even if that was what the parents who named their baby boy had in mind. Another personal name Tzompan in the same manuscript as this one, the Matrícula de Huexotzinco, shows a flag (panitl) with human hair (tzontli) draped over it. In that case, too, perhaps the artist was trying to avoid drawing a skull rack. See below.