Huitznecahual (MH501r)

Thorns or spines were instruments for bloodletting (tlacoquixtia), as the example from the Codex Mendoza (which simulates blood) suggests. The person with this name was probably named after the famous fifteenth-century ruler of Chalco, Huitznecahualtzin (in the reverential). Another Huitznecahual appears in the sixteenth-century Book of Tributes from Morelos (1993, 189), as published by Sarah Cline.

The -necahual part of the name may have the verb cahua (to leave behind) at its root. In The Nahuas (1992, 120), James Lockhart refers to a Magdalena Necahual as "Abandoned One." There may be an "n" that has dropped out of the -necahual part, given that Nenca and Nencauh are two names seen elsewhere in the Matrícula de Huexotzinco. These are both pejorative names. Perhaps the "n" is intrusive in those names. This all requires further research.