papalotl.

Headword: 
papalotl.
Principal English Translation: 

a butterfly (see Molina and Karttunen); also, a person's name (attested as male and possibly female)

Orthographic Variants: 
papalutl, Papallotl
IPAspelling: 
pɑːpɑːloːtɬ
Alonso de Molina: 

papalotl. mariposa.
Alonso de Molina, Vocabulario en lengua castellana y mexicana y mexicana y castellana, 1571, part 2, Nahuatl to Spanish, f. 79v. col. 2. Thanks to Joe Campbell for providing the transcription.

Frances Karttunen: 

PĀPĀLŌ-TL pl: -MEH butterfly / mariposa (M).
Frances Karttunen, An Analytical Dictionary of Nahuatl (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1992), 187.

Attestations from sources in English: 

motlepapalochihua = consume themselves like moths in a flame; and see: Sahagún, Florentine Codex, Notlepapalochiuhtiuh [sic] = I fly into the fire like a moth/butterfly (central Mexico, 1634)
Bartolomé de Alva, A Guide to Confession Large and Small in the Mexican Language, 1634, eds. Barry D. Sell and John Frederick Schwaller, with Lu Ann Homza (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1999), 27.

yolcame papalome = insects and butterflies
Anónimo mexicano, ed. Richley H. Crapo and Bonnie Glass-Coffin (Logan, UT: Utah State University Press, 2005), 11.

papalotilmahtli = the cape with the butterfly design
Justyna Olko, Turquoise Diadems and Staffs of Office: Elite Costume and Insignia of Power in Aztec and Early Colonial Mexico (Warsaw: Polish Society for Latin American Studies and Centre for Studies on the Classical Tradition, University of Warsaw, 2005), 196.

y yamatzon, ioã itzpapalutl, itech ca = his paper crown, and on it obsidian butterflies
Fray Bernardino de Sahagún, Primeros Memoriales, ed. Thelma D. Sullivan, et al. (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1997), 99.

Zazan tleino, tepetozcatl quitoca momamatlaxcalotiuh. Papalotl. = What is it that goes along the foothills of the mountain patting out tortillas with its hands? A butterfly.
Thelma D. Sullivan, "Nahuatl Proverbs, Conundrums, and Metaphors, Collected by Sahagún," Estudios de Cultura Náhuatl 4 (1963), 135–136.

ytoca papallotl = named Papalotl [he is married to a woman named Tlaco] (Cuernavaca region, ca. 1540s)
The Book of Tributes: Early Sixteenth-Century Nahuatl Censuses from Morelos, ed. and transl. S. L. Cline, (Los Angeles: UCLA Latin American Center Publications, 1993), 164–165.

chimalpapalocalli = House of Butterfly Shields (late sixteenth century, Tetzcoco?)
Ballads of the Lords of New Spain: The Codex Romances de los Señores de la Nueva España, transcribed and translated by John Bierhorst (Austin: University of Texas Press, 2009), 33.

Attestations from sources in Spanish: 

quahpatla[n]que yn atzaqualca yn ipa[n] quahpatla[n]que o[n]tetl tlauhquechol ce[n]tetl papalotl ce[n]tetl xillanehuatl = los atzaqualcas volaron en el palo volador. Volaron como dos tlauhquechol, una mariposa y un xillanehuatl. (ca. 1582, Mexico City)
Luis Reyes García, ¿Como te confundes? ¿Acaso no somos conquistados? Anales de Juan Bautista (Mexico: Centro de Investigaciones y Estudios Superiores en Antropología Social, Biblioteca Lorenzo Boturini Insigne y Nacional Basílica de Guadalupe, 2001), 184–185.

papalotl in amo mocuatequia = Papalotl (mariposa, tampoco está bautizada (ca. 1540, Cuernavaca)
Ismael Díaz Cadena, "Libro de tributos del Marquesado del Valle. Texto en español y náhuatl," Biblioteca Nacional de Antropología e Historia, Cuadernos de la Biblioteca, Serie Investigación no. 5, pp. 13, 52.

yq[ua]c meuh papalocuicatl yc q'[ui]z yn ilhuitzin Sant Juan yquac yecauhque papalome yva[n] ocelome = entonces se interpretó el papalocuicatl, con esto se hizo la fiesta de San Juan, entonces se terminaron las mariposas y los ocelotes (ca. 1582, México)
Luis Reyes García, ¿Como te confundes? ¿Acaso no somos conquistados? Anales de Juan Bautista (México: Centro de Investigaciones y Estudios Superiores en Antropología Social, Biblioteca Lorenzo Boturini Insigne y Nacional Basílica de Guadalupe, 2001), 148–149.