Tlilpotonqui (MH775v)
This black-line drawing of the simplex glyph for the personal name Tlilpotonqui (perhaps here meaning "Black Feather Adornment for a Priest") is attested as a man's name. It shows simply a circle painted black (tlilli), providing the semantic and phonetic start to the name.
Stephanie Wood
Magnus Pharao Hansen wrote this when trying to translate Tlilpotonqui (which he found in the Morelos census of 1544): "'he stinks black'?". [See his blog.) That translation could work literally, but the ritual dimension seems important for clarifying that the reference is probably not to bodily odor. Tlilpotonqui was a priestly name that some say refers to black dust or a black stinky substance, apparently involving an adornment (perhaps a staff) that was glued with black feathers. See below for other examples. The name was held by some illustrious figures, including Quetzalcoatl and Miguel Tlilpotonqui, son of Tlacaelel and grandson of Huitzilihuitl. Tlilpotonqui could also refer to a child born outside of marriage. See the Online Nahuatl Dictionary for more information.
Stephanie Wood
pedro . tlilpotoqui
Pedro Tlilpotonqui
Stephanie Wood
1560
Jeff Haskett-Wood
black, tinta, color negro, feathers, plumas, regalia, devices, nombres de hombres
tlilpotonqui, a personal name, a title, a priest who wore a feather adornment, or a rare bean, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/tlilpotonqui
Matrícula de Huexotzinco, folio 775v, World Digital Library, https://www.loc.gov/resource/gdcwdl.wdl_15282/?sp=625&st=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).