The name of the municipality is in honor of the tribal chief Cora Naye, Nayar, or Nayarit, caudillo, legislator, and king; defender of his tribe who successfully maintained the Huacica or Xécora kingdom.
The municipality of El Nayar is located in the northeastern portion of the state of Nayarit, between the extreme coordinates 21° 25 and 22° 40 latitude north and the meridian 103° 58' and 105° 03’ longitude west.
The municipality is located in the Sierra Madre Occidental and there are several mountain peaks including Cerro Dolores (2,480 m) and Los Tecolotes (2,360 m).
The people are farmers, planting corn (maize), beans, squash, and cucumbers in steep hillside plots.
Other barnyard animals are also kept, and hunting, fishing, and gathering of wild foods augments farming.
Neither the Huichol nor the Cora commonly live in villages but, rather, have households in the countryside clustered in loose groups of 1 to 12; these are called rancherias.