Tekum

Sobre el nombre Tekum el lingüista k'iche' Sam Colop (2008: 214n385) cita las obras coloniales de Ximénez y Tirado. Escribe: "conforme al diccionario de Ximénez, hace referencia a 'ciertas cigarras'y conforme a Tirado quiere decir 'mariposa negra.'"

Anthropologist Allen J. Christenson (2007: 276n849) suggests that the name Tekum, the ruler of the thirteenth generation of the Kaweq lineage, "is likely 'enthroned' based on the Nahua tecalli (throne, seat)." Christenson mentions the work of anthropologist Dennis Tedlock (1996: 333n195) who in turns the 1787 work of Fermín Joseph Tirado, also cited above by Colop, "which lists tekum as a 'large, black butterfly that flies with great speed.'"