The name, Xiomara
My mother is Spanish but her grandfather was Native American mixed with Spanish. My mother never met him. The family story is that my mother who did not want any more children due to health issues was visited in a dream by an Indian man who told her she was going to have a baby girl and she was to name her Xiomara. When my mother related this dream to my grandmother she dropped the coffee cup she was holding. "That was my father. When your older sister was born he asked me to name her that and I told him to give me a reason." He refused so my grandmother named her Eneida. My great grandfather passed away after the birth of grandmother's second child. My mother was the fourth child born. Somehow my mother zeroed in on the information even though she knew nothing of her grandfather. In later years, mom also met an Apache Indian who told her that the name came from a Mayan Indian princess who exacted her revenge on the Spaniards who raped and pillaged her people. I haven't been able to verify any references to an Indian princess named Xiomara but my name has always been pronounced as Cee o mara or See o mara. My nickname is Mari by my mother but my cousins call me Xiomy. I thought this was interesting so I thought I would share.
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Thanks for the fascinating information about your own family history. I don't think the "Aztec princess" story is correct, though. The origin of Xiomara doesn't seem to be definitely known, but the most common expert guess is that it's a form of Guiomara, the feminine of Guiomar, a name used in medieval Spain.Another possibility is that it is a form of Chiomara, the name of a Celtic woman in ancient Galatia (modern central Turkey) whose story is perhaps the origin of the "Aztec princess" tale:http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0781453.html
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