a natural spring or its source (see attestations); also, a personal name; for example, the name of the grandson of Huitzilihuitl, ruler of Tenochtitlan; he was the second son of Huehue Zaca; he became ruler of Huitzilopochco (now Churubusco); all according to Chimalpahin (central Mexico, seventeenth century) Codex Chimalpahin: Society and Politics in Mexico Tenochtitlan, Tlatelolco, Culhuacan, and Other Nahuatl Altepetl in Central Mexico; The Nahuatl and Spanish Annals and Accounts Collected and Recorded by don Domingo de San Antón Muñón Chimalpahin Quauhtlehuanitzin, eds. and transl. Arthur J. O. Anderson and Susan Schroeder (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1997), vol. 2, 94–95, 96–97.
a place just south of Mexico City; the name became Hispanized as Churubusco; see also Huitzilopochtli (the deity, Hummingbird-Left, whose name influenced this town name)
the name of a very important divine or sacred force, associated with war, the sun, and the rain; the translation of the name is debated, e.g., "Left-Hand Side of the Hummingbird," "Hummingbird's Left," or, "Left of the Hummingbird" (and left was associated with the cardinal direction south) See, for example, Fray Bernardino de Sahagún, Primeros Memoriales, ed. Thelma D. Sullivan, et al. (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1997), 93.
daughter of Tenzacatetl, who gave her to Acamapichtli to help him produce a child, because his wife, Illancueiti could not have children; she and Acampichtli had a child named Tlatolçacatzin (all according to Chimalpahin)
(central Mexico, seventeenth century) Codex Chimalpahin: Society and Politics in Mexico Tenochtitlan, Tlatelolco, Culhuacan, and Other Nahuatl Altepetl in Central Mexico; The Nahuatl and Spanish Annals and Accounts Collected and Recorded by don Domingo de San Antón Muñón Chimalpahin Quauhtlehuanitzin, eds. and transl. Arthur J. O. Anderson and Susan Schroeder (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1997), vol. 2, 82–83.
a type of fish (apparently one that resembles a hummingbird) This is how the keyword associated with an image of a fish is defined in the Digital Florentine Codex/Códice Florentino Digital, edited by Kim N. Richter and Alicia Maria Houtrouw, "Book 11: Earthly Things", fol. 62v, Getty Research Institute, 2023. https://florentinecodex.getty.edu/en/book/11/folio/62v/images/792e0272-d... Accessed 25 October 2025.
Martín de la Cruz, Libellus de medicinalibus indorum herbis; manuscrito azteca de 1552; segun traducción latina de Juan Badiano; versión española con estudios comentarios por diversos autores (Mexico: Fondo de Cultural Económica; Instituto Mexicano del Seguro Social, 1991), 55 [37v.].
a tree with leaves that resemble the mesquite or the tamarind, with yellow flowers and edible seed pods; the trunk and branches have horn-like spikes (Valley of Mexico, 1570–1587) The Mexican Treasury: The Writings of Dr. Francisco Hernández, ed. Simon Varey, transl. Rafael Chabrán, Cynthia L. Chamberlin, and Simon Varey (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2000), 124.