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ArchivesItzel: is it really Mayan?
Several online sites in Spanish that I have found claim that the girls' name "Itzel" is from a Mayan language and means "evening star." Does anyone here have access to a reliable reference that would tell me whether or not that is correct?
Thanks!
Thanks!
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I did not find a meaning of "evening star" like you, but several English name websites claim that this is the name of the Mayan moon goddess.
I tried to verify this. Here is what I found:
The name of the moon goddess of the Mayas was Ix Chel. Information about her can be found in a large number of places, e.g. here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ix_Chel
http://www.athenapub.com/ixchel.htm
The purported meaning of her name as "she of the rainbow" can be verified with this little dictionary of Mayan words:
http://www.mesoweb.com/resources/vocabulary/Vocabulary.pdf
Because "Ix Chel' is pretty close to "Itzel" and because of the many sites that mention the goddess (independently from the "baby name" websites with their reliability problems) I would say, yes, Itzel seems to be of Mayan origin.
Rene www.AboutNames.ch
I tried to verify this. Here is what I found:
The name of the moon goddess of the Mayas was Ix Chel. Information about her can be found in a large number of places, e.g. here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ix_Chel
http://www.athenapub.com/ixchel.htm
The purported meaning of her name as "she of the rainbow" can be verified with this little dictionary of Mayan words:
http://www.mesoweb.com/resources/vocabulary/Vocabulary.pdf
Because "Ix Chel' is pretty close to "Itzel" and because of the many sites that mention the goddess (independently from the "baby name" websites with their reliability problems) I would say, yes, Itzel seems to be of Mayan origin.
Rene www.AboutNames.ch
1
Thank you for your help. I have found information about Ixchel already. I am just reluctant to assume that "Itzel" and "Ixchel" are the same name without direct confirmation. As I understand the orthography of Spanish/Mayan writing, these are not representations of the same sounds. "Itzel" would be "eet-sell", which "Ixchel" would be "eesh-chell", with the "ch" the same as the "ch" in English words like "chance". So Itzel and Ixchel could be just as different in Mayan as chin and shin or Chad and Shad are in English.
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I certainly see your point. I think it is valid.
It will be interesting to see whether somebody is able to come up with a "direct confirmation" as you define it. I am very skeptical because I rarely see such watertight information.
After all the change from "Ix Chel" to "Itzel" may have happened already several centuries ago. If it really did, how big is the probability that somebody was around to write into a book what happened, and the book survived into our times, and somebody reports about it now so that the people of this forum have access to the information?
A while ago I read an interesting book about etymology ("Word origins, and how we know about them" from Anatoly Liberman) and was surprised to learn that the etymology of "Jeep" is not known for sure, anyway certainly comes without "direct confirmation" for any of the different competing theories. Sometimes it even does not help that the whole world watches, and one fine day the new word ist just there and smiles at everybody :)
For me it all comes down to probability. After reviewing the information about Itzel on the Internet I personally would say that the moon goddess origin is rather probable. Some pleasant surprise notwithstanding I do not expect this story to advance significantly.
But of course I will watch this space...
Rene www.AboutNames.ch
It will be interesting to see whether somebody is able to come up with a "direct confirmation" as you define it. I am very skeptical because I rarely see such watertight information.
After all the change from "Ix Chel" to "Itzel" may have happened already several centuries ago. If it really did, how big is the probability that somebody was around to write into a book what happened, and the book survived into our times, and somebody reports about it now so that the people of this forum have access to the information?
A while ago I read an interesting book about etymology ("Word origins, and how we know about them" from Anatoly Liberman) and was surprised to learn that the etymology of "Jeep" is not known for sure, anyway certainly comes without "direct confirmation" for any of the different competing theories. Sometimes it even does not help that the whole world watches, and one fine day the new word ist just there and smiles at everybody :)
For me it all comes down to probability. After reviewing the information about Itzel on the Internet I personally would say that the moon goddess origin is rather probable. Some pleasant surprise notwithstanding I do not expect this story to advance significantly.
But of course I will watch this space...
Rene www.AboutNames.ch
1