Xōlōchi is Nāwatl, and roughly means “beloved xōlō” and/or “little xōlō.”
“xōlō” refers to Xōlōtl, the dog-headed evening star god, but also to the dogs named after him, xōlōitskwīntin, aka xoloescuincles, literally meaning ‘xolo dogs.’
“-chi” is a stylized form of -tsin, an honorific/endearing suffix in Nāwatl, meaning either “beloved/revered” or “little” as an endearment, like -ito in Spanish.
This phrase stems from my love of dogs, the patron of my birthday sign, ōlīn, being Xōlōtl, and the folk etymology for the word “Chichimeca,” which I’ll explain below.
Beyond Xōlōtl being a dog and my birthday patron, he’s an interesting character in Mesoamerican myth — he’s Ketsalkōātl’s (Quetzalcoatl’s) twin, can shapeshift, mitigate bad luck, illness, and death, he’s the evening star, and overall a tragic figure.
The word “Chichimeca” is used to refer to many of the ancestral semi-nomadic people of the Bajío and Norte regions in Mexico. This word is popularly interpreted to mean “dog people,” from “chichi” (dog) + “mekatl” (rope).
However, this word is actually formed from chīchī + mēkatl. Unlike “chichi” with two short i’s (“dog”), “chīchī” with two long ī’s means “to suckle,” or “boob,” like it does in Spanish (Spanish actually got that from Nāwatl). “-mēkatl” is an ending connected to the ending -mān. chīchīmān means something like “suckling place“ (or ”boob place”) the ancient name for the Gran Chichimeca region. So a Chīchīmēkatl is someone from Chīchīman, sadly not a dog person.