Last year I noted Xaltocan, a new city which the Nahua built on top of an older city which they'd conquered. I cannot find what its natives had called it. I did find they didn't use the Nahua language. The population turnover was recent enough that regional records could remember that it had been an Otomí city.
Otomí isn't their own name for themselves. Their endonyms don't entirely agree with each other. The larger Oto-Pamean family sports a "Hñatho", called Mazahua by outsiders. So if I had to pick a name, I'd pick "Hñato".
The Spaniards found the Otomí, in 1520 AD, scattered around The Vale Now Of The Mexica. Many lived in another city, Metztitlan. Others dwelt in Tlaxcala; Camilla Townsend, in her uneven Fifth Sun, reported that this kingdom deemed them subordinate. Otompan, subsequently famed for the site of Cortes' greatest victory, was founded - literally - as Otomí Town.
The Otomí enjoyed a second lease on life under Spanish suzerainty. Many Otomí today live far from the Vale of their ancestors.
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