Guadalupe (name)

There are some who contend that the Mexican "Guadalupe" is in fact a corruption of a word in the native Nahuatl language.

Nonetheless it is fairly certain that the Mexican name "Guadalupe", as a title for the Virgin Mary, does in fact derive from the Spanish place-name, probably by some association of the Virgin with the cultus of Our Lady of Guadalupe, Extremadura, which would have been strong at the time of the Spanish Conquista of Mexico, and which claimed its own apparition, shrine and pilgrimage.

[citation needed] The name's use in relation to the Marian apparition in Mexico has led to some controversy regarding its origin and meaning.

Such Nahuatl phrases include Coatlaxopeuh ("The one (female) who defeats the snake", interpreted as a reference to the serpent-Devil in the book of Genesis); Tequatlanopeuh ("she whose origins were in the rocky summit"), and Tequantlaxopeuh ("She who banishes those who devoured us").

[citation needed] In fact, accounts of Spaniards' response to the story of the apparitions show that it was the native Mexicans who insisted on using the name "Guadalupe" for Mary.