The name Awatobi is evidently derived from _awata_, a bow (referring
to the Bow clan, one of the strongest in the ancient pueblo), and
_obi_, "high place of." A derivation from _owa_, rock, has also been
suggested, but it seems hardly distinctive enough to be applicable,
and is not accepted by the Hopi themselves.
While the different pueblos of Tusayan were not specially mentioned
until forty years after they were first visited, the name Awatobi is
readily recognized in the account of Espejo in 1583, where it is
called Aguato,[50] which appears as Zaguato and Ahuato in Hakluyt.[51]
In the time of Oñate (1598) the same name is written Aguatuybá.[52]
Vetancurt,[53] about 1680, mentions the pueblo under the names
Aguatobi and Ahuatobi, and in 1692, or twelve years after the great
rebellion, Vargas visited "San Bernardo de Aguatuvi," ten leagues from
Zuñi. The name appears on maps up to the middle of the eighteenth
century, several years after its destruction. In more modern times
various older spellings have been adopted or new ones introduced.
Among these may be mentioned:
AGUATUVÍ. Buschmann, Neu-Mexico, 231, 1858.
AGUATUYA. Bandelier in Journal of American Ethnology and Archæology, III, 85, 1892 (misquoting Oñate).
AGUITOBI. Bandelier in Archæological Institute Papers, Am. series, III, pt. 1, 115, 1890.
AHUATU. Bandelier, ibid., 115, 135.
AHUATUYBA. Bandelier, ibid., 109.
AH-WAT-TENNA. Bourke, Snake Dance of the Moquis of Arizona, 195, 1884 (so called by a Tusayan Indian).
AQUATASI. Walch, Charte America, 1805.
AQUATUBI. Davis, Spanish Conquest of New Mexico, 368, 1869.
ATABI-HOGANDI. Bourke, op. cit., 84, 1884 (Navaho name).
AUA-TU-UI. Bandelier in Archæological Institute Papers, op. cit., IV, pt. 2, 368, 1892.
A-WA-TE-U. Cushing in Atlantic Monthly, 367, September, 1882.
AWATÚBI. Bourke, op. cit., 91, 1884.
Á WAT U I. Cushing in Fourth Report Bureau of Ethnology, 493, 1886 (or Aguatóbi).
ZAGNATO. Brackenridge, Early Spanish Discoveries, 19, 1857 (misprint of Hakluyt's Zaguato).
ZAGUATE. Prince, New Mexico, 34, 1883 (misquoting Hakluyt).
ZUGUATO. Hinton, Handbook to Arizona, 388, 1878 (misquoting Hakluyt).
The Navaho name of the ruin, as is well known, is Talla-hogan,
ordinarily translated "Singing-house," and generally interpreted to
refer to the mass said by the padres in the ancient church. It is
probable, however, that kivas were used as chambers where songs were
sung in ceremonials prior to the introduction of Christianity.
Therefore why Awatobi should preeminently be designated as the
"Singing-house" is not quite apparent.
The name of the mission, San Bernardino,[54] or San Bernardo, refers
to its patron saint, and was first applied by Porras in honor of the
natal day of this saint, on which day, in 1629, he and his companions
arrived in Tusayan.