Xilotl (FCbk8f9v)

This simplex glyph for the personal name Xilotl (or Xilotzin, in the reverential form) shows a frontal view of a maize plant with a golden ear of corn on the left side. It has red silk coming off the top. Otherwise, the plant is green and has a tassel at the top. Xilotzin was a ruler of Tetzcoco with the title of tecuhtli. It is not clear if his name was ever written without the reverential–or without the absolutive, for that matter, even when many names dropped that ending–but the name Xilotl was a popular one among women commoners of the area of Huexotzinco (as shown in our Online Nahuatl Dictionary). If women were given this name it may have been for Xilonen, the female divine force of tender maize. There is a man who had the name Xilotl (literally, Xilol) in the Valley of Toluca, and perhaps he was named after this ruler. But it would remain to be investigated further that the name Xilotl was popular with men, and whether this was owing to a popularity of the memory of Xilotzin of Tetzcoco.