name
Atahualpa
ah-tah-WAHL-pah
ɑːtɑːˈwɑːlpɑːListen
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Syllable breakdown
Atahualpa
Name meaning and origin
- Origin
- Quechua (Andes, South America)
- Meaning
- the name of the last ruling Sapa Inca, Atahualpa (c. 1500–1533), who defeated his brother Huascar in the Inca civil war and was the supreme ruler of Tawantinsuyu when the Spanish conquistadors under Francisco Pizarro arrived; Atahualpa was captured by Pizarro at the massacre of Cajamarca in November 1532 in one of the most consequential acts of the Spanish conquest, held for ransom — filling a room with gold and two rooms with silver, the largest ransom in history — and then executed in August 1533 despite paying the ransom; the name possibly derives from Quechua atahuallpa meaning bird of fortune or lucky bird, combining ataw (fortune, luck) and wallpa (bird); Atahualpa is a powerful symbol of both the height of Inca power and the catastrophic destruction of Andean civilisation by European conquest, and the name is used to honour this heritage
- Gender
- male
- Also spelled
- Atawallpa, Atahuallpa
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