Nahuatl Numbers

Introduction

The Nahuatl counting system was vigesimal, meaning it was based on units of twenty rather than the units of ten familiar to modern readers. Where European arithmetic groups numbers by tens, hundreds, and thousands, Nahuatl grouped them by twenties, four hundreds, and eight thousands.

Numbers

Matrícula de tributos - Library of Congress.png

The Nahuatl word for twenty, cempohualli, literally means "one full count," a possible reference to counting all the fingers and toes of the human body. This system is visible throughout colonial documents, particularly in tribute records like the Matrícula de Tributos, where quantities were recorded using pictographic symbols: a flag (pantli) represented twenty, while a feather or fir tree represented four hundred (twenty twenties).

Understanding this system is essential for reading Catholic records written in colonial Nahuatl, especially when the number is written out.

Arabic	Roman	English	Spanish	Nahuatl
0	Nūllus	Zero	Cero	ahtle
1	I	One	Uno	ce
2	II	Two	Dos	ome
3	III	Three	Tres	yetlamantli/eyi
4	IV	Four	Cuatro	nahui
5	V	Five	Cinco	macuilli
6	VI	Six	Seis	chicuace/chiquacen
7	VII	Seven	Siete	chicome
8	VIII	Eight	Ocho	chicueyi
9	IX	Nine	Nueve	chiucnahui
10	X	Ten	Diez	mahtlactli
11	XI	Eleven	Once	mahtlactli once
12	XII	Twelve	Doce	mahtlactli omome
13	XIII	Thirteen	Trece	mahtlactli omeyi
14	XIV	Fourteen	Catorce	mahtlactli onnahui
15	XV	Fifteen	Quince	caxtolli
16	XVI	Sixteen	Dieciséis	caxtolli once
17	XVII	Seventeen	Diecisiete	caxtolli omome
18	XVIII	Eighteen	Dieciocho	caxtolli omeyi
19	XIX	Nineteen	Diecinueve	caxtolli onnahui
20	XX	Twenty	Veinte	cempoalli
21	XXI	Twenty-one	Veintiuno	cempoalli once
22	XXII	Twenty-two	Veintidós	cempoalli omome
23	XXIII	Twenty-three	Veintitrés	cempoalli omeyi
24	XXIV	Twenty-four	Veinticuatro	cempoalli onnahui
25	XXV	Twenty-five	Veinticinco	cempoalli macuilli
26	XXVI	Twenty-six	Veintiséis	cempoalli chicuace
27	XXVII	Twenty-seven	Veintisiete	cempoalli chicome
28	XXVIII	Twenty-eight	Veintiocho	cempoalli chicueyi
29	XXIX	Twenty-nine	Veintinueve	cempoalli chiucnahui
30	XXX	Thirty	Treinta	cempoalli mahtlactli
31	XXXI	Thirty-one	Treinta y uno	cempoalli onmahtlactli once

Putting it all together

In the burial document pictured below, the number twenty-four is written as "Cepohuali yhuanahui" rather than the standardized "Cempohualli huan nahui." Spelling variations like this are common in handwritten Nahuatl documents, so expect inconsistencies when reading numbers written out. Here's how the number 24 breaks down:

Cem- — "one"
pohualli — "a count/a counting" (from the verb pohua, "to count") — together, cempohualli literally means "one count [of twenty]"
huan (or ihuan/yhuan) — "and"
nahui — "four"

Nahuatl-numbers-Cempohualli huan nahui.jpg

Ic/Yc and Roman Numerals

ic ce	ic I	First
ic ome	ic II	Second
ic yei	ic III	Third
inic nahui	ic IV	Fourth
inic maculli	ic V	Fifth

In Nahuatl, you form an ordinal by simply prefixing a cardinal number with ic (or one of its spelling variants), no separate ordinal vocabulary needed. This works whether the number is spelled out in Nahuatl (ic ce, ic ome) or written as a Roman numeral (ic iii, ic v, ic xi) as some colonial scribes preferred Roman numerals as a shorthand, especially in dates. Because dates are themselves ordinals ("the 3rd," "the 11th"), ic/yc very often signals that a date is coming, so seeing it before a number is a useful cue to look for a day of the month nearby. The variant used (ic, inic, yc, ycyc) mostly reflects scribal or dialectal preference rather than any real difference in meaning. Image 3 is a 1613 burial record that shows the ic/yc (highlighted in blue) and roman numerals (highlighted in yellow) being used together.

Nahuatl-numbers YC and Roman Numerals.jpg

Image 1: Matricula de tributos (Tribute Roll), [1522 to 1530], page 24, World Digital Library, Library of Congress, Accessed 6 July 2026. https://www.loc.gov/resource/gdcwdl.wdl_03248/?sp=24

Image 2: "Registros parroquiales, 1598-1969," burial entry for Maria, 24 January 1635, Cuernavaca, Morelos, Mexico, p. 103, digital image, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:939N-JF94-1C?view=explore&groupId=M9ZN-387&lang=en&cat=true : accessed 15 July 2026), IGN 4641592, image 375 of 629.

Image 3: "Registros parroquiales, 1600-1955," burial entries for Anna, Pablo, Martin Sallamaca, that occurred on the 20, 24, 28 of October 1613 respectively, Ocuituco, Morelos, Mexico, digital image, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:939X-7M92-V9?view=explore&groupId=M9ZR-9FH&lang=en&cat=true: accessed 15 July 2026), IGN 4596099, image 23 of 658.