Pachacuti

Syllable breakdown

Name meaning and origin

Origin

Quechua (Andes, South America)

Meaning

the name of the ninth Sapa Inca, Pachacuti (r. c. 1438–1471), who transformed the Inca state from a small regional kingdom into the vast Tawantinsuyu empire that stretched from present-day Colombia to Argentina, making him the most consequential builder of Inca imperial power; the name Pachacuti means world-turner, earth-shaker, or he who transforms the world, from Quechua pacha (world, earth, time) and kuti (to turn, to transform, to reverse); Pachacuti is credited with building Machu Picchu, redesigning Cusco as a sacred city in the shape of a puma, and creating the administrative and road systems that made the Inca empire the largest in pre-Columbian America; the name is used in contemporary Andean communities as a symbol of transformative power and Inca civilizational achievement, and has entered broader global consciousness through the fame of Machu Picchu

Gender

male

Also spelled

Pachacutec, Pachakutiq