The latest suggestion I have noticed is that of Eligio Ancona, who, claiming that _Mayab_ is the correct form, and that this means "not numerous," thinks that it was applied to the first native settlers of the land, on account of the paucity of their numbers![15-3]
All this seems like learned trifling. The name may belong to that ancient dialect from which are derived many of the names of the days and months in the native calendar, and which, as an esoteric language, was in use among the Maya priests, as was also one among the Aztecs of Mexico. Instances of this, in fact, are very common among the American aborigines, and no doubt many words were thus preserved which could not be analyzed to their radicals through the popular tongue.
Or, if it is essential to find a meaning, why not accept the obvious signification of the name? _Ma_ is the negative "no," "not;" _ya_ means rough, fatiguing, difficult, painful, dangerous. The compound _maya_ is given in the Dictionary of Motul with the translations "not arduous nor severe; something easy and not difficult to do;" _cosa no grave ni recia; cosa facil y no dificultosa de hacer_. It was used adjectively as in the phrase, _maya u chapahal_, his sickness is not dangerous. So they might have spoken of the level and fertile land of Yucatan, abounding in fruit and game, that land to which we are told they delighted to give, as a favorite appellation, the term _u luumil ceh, u luumil cutz_, the land of the deer, the land of the wild turkey; of this land, I say, they might well have spoken as of one not fatiguing, not rough nor exhausting.
Whatever the primitive meaning and first application of the name Maya, it is now used to signify specifically the aborigines of Yucatan. In a more extended sense, in the expression "the Maya family," it is understood to embrace all tribes, wherever found, who speak related dialects presumably derived from the same ancient stock as the Maya proper.
Other names for this extended family have been suggested, as Maya-Kiche, Mam-Huastec, and the like, compounded of the names of two or more of the tribes of the group. But this does not appear to have much advantage over the simple expression I have given, though "Maya-Kiche" may be conveniently employed to prevent confusion.