Chimalman (MH633r)
This black-line drawing of the simplex glyph for the personal name Chimalman ("Like a Shield") is attested here as a woman's name. The glyph shows a frontal view of a round shield with feather fringe along the bottom. It has a cuexyo design (see below). The -man conclusion to the name (from -mani, in the manner of) is not shown visually.
Stephanie Wood
The jury is still out, but if the name ends in -man, this would render a translation of "In the Manner of a Shield" or "Like a Shield." If the second part of her name is -ma, then some see a reference to the hand (maitl), and thus some translate her name as "Shield Bearer."
Chimalman was the name of a famous woman and deity bearer in the migration from Aztlan. She has also been described, as explained in our Online Nahuatl Dictionary, as a possible daughter of Quetzalcoatl and wife of Mixcoatl. In this case, from the Matrícula de Huexotzinco, the name is being used by what may be a macehualli woman. She does not have a title by her name, such as the imported term, doña.
The gloss for this glyph inadvertently drops the final 'a' off of the name Juana. It is clear, however, that this is a woman. She is in a listing that is full of other women.
Stephanie Wood
1560
Jeff Haskett-Wood
shields, escudos, armas, nombres de mujeres, mujeres famosas, personas famosas
Chimalman, a personal name and one of a legendary woman, migration leader https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/chimalman
chimal(li), shield, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/chimalli
ma(itl), hand, arm, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/maitl
-man(i), in the manner of, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/mani-1
Escudo-Mano
Stephanie Wood
Matrícula de Huexotzinco, folio 633r, World Digital Library, https://www.loc.gov/resource/gdcwdl.wdl_15282/?sp=348st=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).
