Anthroponymy in the betrothed of Jilotepec, 17th Century

Abstract

This article describes the anthroponymy identified between 1665 and 1680 in the event of marriage before the Catholic Church by the Otomi population of the Jilotepec region, in the north of the current State of Mexico. The information was obtained from the books where the nuptial records were recorded, currently safeguarded, in the Historical Archive of the Parish of San Pedro and San Pablo Jilotepec, in the Sacramental section, Marriages series, books 66 and 67. In each marriage union registry, the spouses, fathers, mothers, godparents, godmothers and witnesses were recorded. So there is a very large number of words that intervene in the nomination of the population. The purpose of this inquiry is to clear the way to gather data on the evolution of the name in the indigenous population of that province and time, in particular, and of the Mesoamerican population in general, a subject little frequented until now by anthroponymy scholars. The names are assigned to adults and are constructed of one or two lexical pieces mainly, however, they begin to appear of three vocables, some with an identifying element of Spanish origin and others hybrids. This inquiry increased its search from the observation of syntactic differences in the nomenclature between baptized children and adults who are registered in ecclesiastical events such as in this case marriages. According to Bowman's study in the cathedral of Mexico, the proper names he describes show similarity with those of Jilotepec, however, in the assignment of identifying elements in the Otomi region, the syntax shows information about the evolution of the name in Mexico during the colonial era.