Yucatán, Campeche, Quintana Roo, Chiapas
Mayan names
Itzel, Ixchel, Nicté, Balam, Canek. Maya names are short and sharp, most of them a single word: jaguar, flower, star, sun face. Here are the ones given to children in the Yucatán peninsula and across Mexico, and the gods of the Popol Vuh and Chichén Itzá.
24 Mexican names found
What Mayan names mean
Yucatec Maya is spoken by about 800,000 people, and Maya languages together by six million across Mexico and Guatemala. Names come from the natural world (Balam, jaguar; Nicté, flower; Ek, star; Kin, sun; Ha, water), from the gods (Itzamná, Ixchel, Kukulkán), and from the 20 day signs of the Maya calendar (Akbal, night; Kan, seed; Chicchan, serpent; Ik, wind). The prefix ix marks a female name or a goddess (Ixchel, Ixtab, Ixmucané), and ah marks a male one (Ah Puch, Ah Kin).
Some names that Mexican parents think of as Maya are modern coinages or reshapings: Itzel from Ixchel, Yatziri and Itzayana with invented meanings. The name pages mark those cases and give the best-supported reading rather than the popular one.
Mayan girl names
Mayan boy names
Unisex mayan names
Rulers and warriors
Historical names. Some, like Cuauhtémoc and Moctezuma, are given today; most are rare.
Gods, goddesses, and legend names
Story names, rarely registered for children. Each page explains who the figure was and what the name means.
Maya names today
Unlike Nahuatl names, which were suppressed almost completely, Maya surnames survived the colonial period in Yucatán and still top the state's lists: Pech, Canul, Chan, Ek, May, Uc, Poot, Tun, Cauich, Dzul. Given names took longer to return, but since the 1990s Itzel has become one of the most common girl names in the whole country, and the Riviera Maya's tourism boom made Ixchel, Nicté, Zazil, Balam, and Kinich familiar far beyond the peninsula.
Pronunciation is closer to Spanish than Nahuatl is. Stress usually falls on the last syllable (eet-SEL, neek-TEH, bah-LAHM, kah-NEK). X is sh (Ixchel is eesh-CHEL) and the apostrophe in scholarly spellings (K'iche', Ik') marks a glottal stop that everyday Mexican spelling drops.
Related
- Mayan girl names and Mayan boy names, split by usage.
- Mayan kings: Pakal, the Kan Ek' dynasty, and the royal titles.
- Aztec names: the Nahuatl tradition of central Mexico.
- Mexican last names: including the Maya surnames of Yucatán.
- Place names: Yucatán, Cancún, Tulum, Chichén Itzá, and what they mean.
Mayan names FAQ
What are popular Mayan names in Mexico?
Itzel is by far the most common, a top-50 girl name across Mexico. Ixchel, Nicté, Zazil, Sac-Nicté, Itzá, and Yatziri follow for girls; Balam (jaguar), Canek (black serpent), Kinich (sun face), Iktan, and Akbal for boys. They are most common in Yucatán, Campeche, Quintana Roo, and Chiapas.
What does Itzel mean?
The popular gloss is 'evening star' or 'rainbow lady', but the best-supported reading is that Itzel is a modern reshaping of Ixchel, the Maya moon and weaving goddess, whose name is usually explained as ix (lady) + chel (rainbow), itself debated. The Itzel page lays out the evidence.
Are Mayan names different from Aztec names?
Yes. Maya languages (Yucatec, Tzotzil, Tzeltal, K'iche') are unrelated to Nahuatl. Maya names tend to be short, often one or two syllables (Ek, Uc, May, Pech are surnames; Balam, Canek, Nicté are given names), where Nahuatl names are long compounds. In Yucatán, Maya surnames are still the most common in the state.
What are the Maya gods' names?
Itzamná (creator, lord of the sky), Kukulkán (feathered serpent, the Maya Quetzalcóatl), Chaac (rain), Ixchel (moon, weaving, medicine), Kinich Ahau (sun face lord), Ah Puch (death), Yum Kaax (lord of the forest, maize), Ek Chuah (merchants and cacao), Ixtab (the rope woman), and the Popol Vuh hero twins Hunahpú and Xbalanqué. See mythology names.