What does nango mean?

Question

as in the ending of Quetzaltenango , Mazatenango and many other Guatemalan cities. Is this a spanish or mayan word?

Answer 1

Quetzaltenango as Chimaltenango, and many more names ARE spanish names. These words were created based on the sounds of the native dialects as heard by the conquerors.

Thus, these words are NOT written in the aboriginal language in the same way they where spoken and recorded in spanish.

Answer 2

From the Nahuatl dictionary:

Quetzaltenango (Lugar de la muralla de los quetzales), Guatemala.

It follows mediterrunio's explanation.

Answer 3

Not Spanish. But you can check for cities with that ending in Spain.

The original Nahuatl name was quetzalten?nco, quetzal-ten?n-co, of which a likely etymology is:

-[erected]-[wall]-[place] roughly translated as "place where there are erected walls"

or

• [Quetzal bird]-[fortification]-[in the] roughly translated as "In the Quetzal fortress"

So, tenango ----> place sorrounded by a wall.