empire's children: the people of TZINTZUNTZAN FOSTER 



231 



determined by the saint's day upon which the 

 child is bom. Since each day has several saints, 

 a certain amount of choice is permitted. In many 

 cases, however, parents simply select names 

 which they like, often giving them the names of 

 deceased relatives. Guillermo called his daugh- 

 ter Lupe, after his dead sister, and a son Manuel, 

 after a great-grandfather. Sometimes parents 

 change the name of a child already several 

 years old, calling it after an older sibling who 

 died. Needless to say, this causes great confus- 

 ion to the ethnologist who tries to trace gen- 

 ealogies in the municipal register. Ignacio 

 Estrada's son, Alfredo, was baptized Antonio. 

 When he was a year old an older brother named 

 Alfredo died, and his grief-stricken parents de- 

 cided to strengthen the memory of the older boy 

 by transferring his name to the younger. Adol- 

 fo Pena was 3 years old when an older brother, 

 Rudolfo, died. His mother started calling him 

 Rudolfo, while the rest of the family kept the 

 old name. As a result, he scarcely knows who 

 he is. 



Lucia Peria was registered in the municipio 

 books as Gloria, simply because her parents 

 liked the name. But when the priest, upon bap- 

 tizing the child, was told of this choice, he flew 

 into a rage. "What, name the child Gloria 

 ("Heaven")?" he stormed. "You'd just as well 

 name a child Infierno ("Hell"). I'm going to 

 baptize the child Lucia," and before the startled 

 parents could recover their wits the act was 

 done. And Lucia it is, to this day. Dona An- 

 drea named her first son Jesiis just because she 

 liked the name. Twenty years later another male 

 child was born to her at midnight on Christmas 

 Eve. This posed a problem. Obviously, a child 

 born on the day of Our Lord could have no 

 other name, whatever the other members of the 

 family were called, so she decided to call him 

 Jesus. Jose Maria, the husband, grunted his 

 objections. "We already have one Jesiis, and 

 one Jesus is enough in any family." But Doiia 

 Andrea won the day. Logic and the priest were 

 on her side, and the new baby was duly baptized 

 Jesiis. "We'll just call them Big Jesiis and Lit- 

 tle Jesiis," she announced, and so it was, Jesiis 

 el Grande and Jesiis el Chico. 



Having a long list of saints from which to 

 choose appears to result in greater variety in 

 names than one would find in an American town 

 of the same size. The 1,200 odd inhabitants of 



Tzintzuntzan have, collectively, nearly 400 dif- 

 ferent names, aside from secondary names which 

 are less frequent than in larger Mexican cities. 

 Likewise, the fact that most names serve either 

 for males or females, such as Guadalupe, or can 

 be slightly altered by the final vowel, such as 

 Antonio and Antonia, makes for greater variety. 

 A few names for each sex are as popular as 

 John, Robert, or Thomas in our own society, 

 though in most cases an individual's name will 

 be unique, or at most he will share it with one 

 or two other persons. Examination of the cen-* 

 sus reveals the following name frequencies; 

 common nicknames follow in parenthesis. 



Males: Jose, 35; Jesiis (Chiicho), 31; Francisco 

 (Pancho), 25; Juan, 20; Ignacio (Nacho), 15; Luis, 

 15; and Antonio, 11. Lesser frequencies are: 10 each, 

 Miguel and Salvador; 9 each, Fidel, Nicolas, Pedro, 

 Rafael; 7 each. Agustin, Guadaluj)e (Lupe), Vicen- 

 te; 6 each, Felipe, Felix, Genaro; 5 each, Abel. Bal- 

 domero. Bonifacio, Maximino, Pablo; 4 each. Adal- 

 berto, Adolfo, Alfonso. David, Jose Maria (Chema), 

 Manuel. Paulino. Ramon, Sacramento. Santiago; 3 

 each, Alfredo, Amador, Daniel, Delfino, Domingo, 

 Eleno, Eliseo. Enrique, Epigmenio, Gilberto. Grego- 

 rio, Leandro. Medardo, Melesio. Moises. Nazario, Pri- 

 mo, Ruben, Salomon, Samuel, Sebastian, Victoriano, 

 Zeferino; 2 each, Agapito, Benito, Benjamin, Berna- 

 be, Cirilo, Damian, Eduardo, Efren. Emilio, Encarna- 

 cion, Ernesto, Eugenio, Faustino (Tino), Feliciano, 

 Gabino, Gerardo, Guillermo, Hilario, Ismael, Jaime, 

 Leopoldo, Marciano, Margarito, Mariano, Martin, 

 Maurilio, Melquiades, Natalio, Pascual, Roberto, Ro- 

 dolfo, Rogelio, Rosalio, Santos, Severiano, Silviano, 

 Teofilo, Ventura, Wenceslao; 1 each, Abraham, Al- 

 berto, Alejandro, Ambrosio, Andres, Angel, Ansel- 

 mo. Arcadio, Aristeo, Arturo, Ascension, Atanasio, 

 Audon, Bardomiano, Bartolo, Benigno, Bernardino, 

 Bernardo, Brigido. Bulmaro, Candido, Carlos. Celedo- 

 nio, Conrado, Cruz, Donato, Eleuterio. Eligio. Emilia- 

 no, Epifanio, Esiquio, Eucario, Eulalio, Eusebio. Eze- 

 quiel. Federico. Filemon. Filiberto. Filomeno. Floren- 

 cio, Gabriel, Caspar, Gaudencio, German, Gild^rdo, 

 Gustavo, Hector, Hilo, Hipolito, Ireneo, Isaac. Jero- 

 nimo, Joel, Julian, Julian de Jesiis, Julio, Juventino, 

 Ladislao, Laureano, Leobardo, Leonardo, Librado, 

 Lino, Lucas, Luciano, Lucio. Magdaleno, Marcial, 

 Marcos, Mariano, Marino, Mario, Mateo, Matias, Mo- 

 desto, Nabor. Narciso, Nepomuceno, Norberto, Odi- 

 lon, Patricio, Pioquinto, Ponciano, Porfirio, Priscilia- 

 no, Reynaldo, Rogelio, Romulo, Rosendo, Sabino, 

 Saiil. Serapio. Silverio. Silvestre. Simon, Sixto. Tibur- 

 cio, Tomas, Ubaldo, Valentin, Victor, Zenon. 



Except for Hilo, of unknown origin, all names 

 appear to be either those of saints or of standard 

 Spanish origin. No trace of Tarascan influence 

 remains in given names. 



