What Quetzalli means
Because the long green tail feathers were treasure, quetzalli became the standard metaphor for anything precious, and quetzal- opens dozens of names. Sahagun's Florentine Codex lists it among the feathers of tribute.
NahuatlCore vocabulary
Quetzalli
“precious feather”
Say it
keht·SAH·lee
Classical form
quetzalli (quetzal tail feather), from quetza (to raise, stand)
Names built from Quetzalli
1 name on this site uses this word.
The Nahuatl words behind the names
Learn twenty of these and most Aztec names decode themselves. Atl is water, tlalli earth, citlalin star, metztli moon, yollotl heart, cuauhtli eagle, xochitl flower.
Back to all Nahuatl and Maya words, or see how they combine in Nahuatl names.