Nahua Net Names

[micc at home.com]

You raise some interesting questions in regards to the internet and the
use of nahuatl names for internet "identities"  i am sure that some
people will not like "non-indigenous people" using nahuatl names, but
that is another story.....

ihave a nahuatl name that was given to me by my Azteca dance maestro in
1975. Quetzalcoatl, he said fit me since I was always trying to learn
the cultural ways of our past.  of course, at that time he did not know
about the 18th and 19th century revisions of Quetzalcoatl as a "god of
wisdom", but his sentiments were nevertheless kind and thoguhtful.

In 1980 when i was given recognition as a tla'toani (or as is more
commonly used in the danza: Capitan) by a group of Danza Azteca elders
at Tepeyacac, I chose the name Cuauhtlecoc as my Danza name.


Today, all of the young kids who have been born into my dance group have
spanish names ( or as some purists call them "slave names) for use in
the schools, and regular "business"  and Nahuatl or Yaqui middle names
for ceremonial use only.  We have a large population of Mexicanos who
come from Sonora and Sinaloa, where the Yoreme and Cora live, so the
Yaqui names are popular.

My son, as student at UCLA has as  his ceremonial name Ehecatl, and my
daughter has  Metztli

Over the past two years or so that I have been a menmber of the nahuat-l
and Aztlan groups, i have seen a rise in requests for Nahuatl or
indigenous names for new born children.


XocoyoCopitzin at aol.com wrote:
>
> Even though I didn't originate the question, thank you Frances for clarifying
> re: -tzin.  :-) These are precisely the kind of fact-a-day posts that I enjoy
> receiveing from the list.
>
> karttu at nantucket.net writes:
> << The big prohibition is using the honorific in reference to oneself.
> Yaoxochitl should never refer to himself as Yaoxochitzin.
> Adding a -tzin to one's own name is a gaffe that will usually provoke a lot
> of laughter and teasing. >>
>
> I of course realize that this statement is not directed specifically to me,
> but it does bring up something I've been thinking about for a while as I
> study the issues of identity on the Internet, which often includes the act of
> self-naming.
>
> My AOL Screen Name is not a Nahuatl name I have taken for myself as a person,
> nor do I expect to be addressed by it.  I don't sign my posts to this
> listserv using it, but am often referred to as "Xocoyo" or "Copitzin" in
> other non-nahuatl venues where I desire a modicum of anonymity.  Because of
> the sophisticated nature of the work we do together in those forums, not a
> one of the participants confuses me with the nature of the screen name.
>
> Here on Nahuat-l, should you ever need to quote me, I'd rather you just call
> me Alison King.  :-)  I wouldn't presume to take a Nahua name for my own
> unless I had a legitimate reason to.  Xocoyocopitzin is, however, the name
> for a storybook character I'm currently researching and writing about, and
> since much of the book's conversation happens between Xocoyocopitzin and her
> revered elder, the -tzin was important for me to include in the Screen Name.
> I employ the -tzin in a fond, diminiutive sense.  Who knows, maybe I even got
> some part of the name wrong in my haste to get started on the project before
> resubscribing here.  I guess now would be a good time to find out if I'm in
> error.  :-)
>
> Of course, you wouldn't know a shred of this reasoning unless I'd shared
> today.  I bring it up because I think its important to realize that folks
> using Nahuatl names on the internet may be doing so for an increasingly wide
> variety of reasons, some of which have to do with Real Life identity (ala
> Mexica Movement), and others for more conceptual reasons (poetic license), or
> in my case, arts & entertainment purposes in a ficitonwriting club.
>
> As the Age of the Internet swells into a sizeably legitimate form of
> worldwide cultural revolution, the integration of Nahua words and principles
> into Net culture is going to be an inevitable fact.  (A quick search of the
> AOL Screen Name database shows quite a few.... creative.... uses of the term
> "coatl", "yaotl", "Tezcatlipoca" and "quetzal") We're bound to see increased
> use and abuse of the language as the Net is cast wider.  I'm sure a good
> number of us are familiar with the dangers of "playing indian" (let's let
> that beaten horse lie), and the Internet makes that even more tempting to do
> on all sorts of levels, largely because of the anonymity that the medium
> affords.
>
> Interesting times, indeed.
>
> For those of you who have taken Nahua Net Names (whether of Mexican descent
> or not), I'd be interested to hear the reasons why, how you use your name,
> whether it was self-conceived or given to you, how others perceive and use it
> on the Net, the process you may have gone through to choose a Nahua Net name
> for yourself, and perhaps what it means to you to bear a Nahua Net name in
> this small, small world.
>
> Alison King