bodily excretions in personal names

[Magnus Pharao Hansen]

I don't agree that "owner of excrement" is necessarily a bad translation of
*cuitlahua*. At least I don't think the notion that it seems like an odd
name that would cause giggles is a good enough argument to discard it. For
one thing scatological humour may not be as universal as we might think -
the cuitla-etymons provided by joe campbell do not seem to use the word
cuitlatl in particularly humorous contexts. Secondly other rulers have been
known to have names that would provoke giggles when translated by westernes.
The name of Maxixcatzin, the ruler of Ocotelolco at the time of the conquest
seems only parseable as refl-urinate-agentive-reverential ad translateable
"as honorable urinator of himself" - and Netzahual coyotls epithet yoyontzin
might well be derived from the word "yoma" which apparently means "to move
sexily like a prostitute" or to "perform movements during a coitus".

Thirdly while the best translation of -eh/-hua suffixes into english would
be "owner of" that doesn't necessarily mean that that is an exact
translation. For example we know that in words such as *tentzoneh* "beard
owner", *michhua *"fisherman/fishowner", *calpuleh* "calpulli leader" the
meaning doesn't fit exactly 1:1 with the english notion of "owner of".

Magnus
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