260.] His name is symbolic, and is capable of several equally fair renderings.
The first part of it, _quetzalli_, means literally a large, handsome green feather, such as were very highly prized by the natives.

Hence it came to mean, in an adjective sense, precious, beautiful, beloved, admirable.

The bird from which these feathers were obtained was the _quetzal-tototl_ (_tototl_, bird) and is called by ornithologists _Trogon splendens_.
The latter part of the name, _coatl_, has in Aztec three entirely different meanings.

It means a guest, also twins, and lastly, as a syncopated form of _cohuatl_, a serpent.

Metaphorically, _cohuatl_ meant something mysterious, and hence a supernatural being, a god.