There are many stories as to how Chapala got its name:
The "Chapalan Sea" or "El Mar Chapalico" ...is so called from the Nahuatl word "Chapalal" meaning "the splashing of waves on a sandy beach"
Rebel Chief Chapalac (Tuxcuexe Chapalac) settled in the area now known as Chapala. Franciscan fathers named the Lake after him; "Chapalac" meaning "wet place" in Nahuatl; "Cha-Pa-La" -- Cha ulin, meaning grasshopper, ATL, meaning water, and LA, meaning place; "Grasshoppers over the water". This is the legend of Jorge Munguia,
Finally, the most accepted version for the origin of the word that gave the Lake its name: A corruption of the Mexican "Chapatla" which evolved from "Chapalan" and "Chachapatlan" meaning "place where the pots abound". This refers to the primitive Indian belief of appeasing and or petitioning their gods* by throwing pots, spotted with blood taken from their ear lobes, into Lake Chapala.
*gods: Tonatiuh, sun god, Iztlacateotl, the god-that-turns-the-head-with-anger; Tonacayohua, corn god, Tlaloc, rain god; and Machis, goddess who dwells in Laguna Chapalac.
In the beginning: Indian tribes drifted into the Lake Chapala valley about 1,000 B.C. They came from a place called "Aztlan" When they saw the great crystal Lake waters, they knew they had arrived-at last-after centuries of ancestral wandering, at their happy hunting grounds.
The Lake was teeming with fish. The azure skies were dark with migrating fowl...mallard, geese and teal. Reeds and pale clay mud which lined the shores provided shelters, reeds for mats and baskets, and oft-times their clothing.
The mountains surrounding the Lake were cascading with verdure and the Indian's moccasined feet beat paths through tangles of creepers from which dangled delicate jungle orchids. Scattered settlements of mud huts began to grow naturally, though sparsely, along their well-beaten paths.
At times the rivers... Lerma and the Santiago, blocked their paths, and big boulders lining the shores formed deep pools of water.
The rivers rose sometimes with indifferent ease and the whimsy of flash floods would rise and sweep them in their wake. Now and again, seeing a likely place, some droppedout...staying behind to build shelters, have babies, and to fish and hunt in their new-found paradise.
