(EDIT: Fixed phonotactics. I made the mistake of overlooking that words can only begin or end with one consonant, and only up to two consonants can occur between vowels. So I changed a lot of the names to reflect this. Fortunately, ch/tx, cu/uc, hu/uh, tl and tz each count as one consonant.)

It started with I was talking to my friend  panchi-tiger.

Now he loves chilli peppers. I mean really loves them. The hotter (the more capsaicin in them) the better. He drinks super-hot chilli sauce like a drink. He's adventurous to try the newest hottest chilli peppers he's heard about. He's probably gradually desensitizing his body's ability to feel capsaicin's hotness. :P

But one thing Panch has tried very little of...is authentic Mexican cuisine. Mexico, afterall, is the natural indigenous home of the chilli pepper, and makes some of the most diverse culinary uses of it. And not just in salsa, but in things like...chili con carne, and also mole poblano, a quintessential Mexican dinner sauce made with chilli peppers, unsweetened chocolate and spices, and served over turkey as if it were gravy. Panch hasn't tried many of these things. He then insisted that food should be sweet or spicy but not both, and I told him he was limiting himself too much and should diversify his culinary palate. :3

To tease him, and using my linguistics geekery, I found myself rendering his name into Classical Nāhuatl, the great classical written literary language of the Aztecs and of early Christian Mexico.

Panch = Panchitl

Basically, it works like this. First, you make sure that you have a root (like "Panch"), and make sure it uses no consonants or vowels that are not native to Classical Nāhuatl phonotactics, and convert the ones that aren't to ones that are:

a = /a/
ā = /aː/
c = /k/ (before a/o), /s/ (before e/i)
ch/tx = /tɕ/ (similar to English)
cu/uc = /kʷ/ (similar to English qu)
e = /e/
ē = /eː/
h = /ʔ/ (glottal stop)
hu/uh = /w/
i = /i/
ī = /iː/
l = /l/
ll = /ll/ (not like in Spanish)
m = /m/
n = /n/
o = /o/
ō = /oː/
p = /p/
qu = /k/ (only used before e/i)
t = /t/
tl = /tɬ/ (like t + Welsh ll sound—very rare in linguistics)
tz = /ts/
x = /ɕ/ (similar to English sh)
y = /j/ (like in English)
z = /s/ (typically only used before a/o)

Then, you add the grammatical noun suffix. If the root ends with a vowel, add -tl. If it ends with a consonant, add -tli instead. But if the root ends with -l, it's not -ltli, but -lli. This is true for many of the originally Nāhuatl nouns of familiar words:

āhuacatl (avocado)
cacahuatl (cacao/cocoa)
chīlli (chilli pepper)
chocolātl (chocolate)
coyōtl (coyote)
Mēxihcatl (Mexico)
peyōtl (peyote)
tlālōcēlōtl (ocelot)
(xi)tomātl (tomato)

In my conversation with Panch, I started coming up with names for other people we knew too. And they started to unfold:

Sippo Abasiri = Apacilicippotl
AlphaChimaera = Alpaquimēlatl
Arthur = Altolli
Aster-Marion = Aztelmaliontli
Azaghal = Azacālli
Bauske = Pōzquetl
Brown Kuma = Palaoncomatl
Buzz = Poztli
Captain Ger Bear = Captenchelbelli
Seno Daichi = Taychicenotl
Dan (the Bear) = Tantli
Dermot = Tialmattli
Greening = Quilīnintli
Grimal = Quilimālli
Himachi = Imachitl
Ryū Inugami = Inocamiliōtl
J. K. Roo = Chēquēlōtl
Kalenidus = Calenitotl
Kensuke = Quenzoquetl
Nagao Kō = Cōnacaotl
Lupus Signatus = Lopozcicnātotl
Lykanthrope = Līcantlōpotl
Manya = Maniatl
Mokojumbie = Mocochompitl
Naga Gray Wolf = Nacaclēhuolpotl
Negger = Nequelli
Ninja Vanish = Ninchahuanixtli
Noir Theater = Noalteatlotl
oCeLoT = ōCēLōTL (already Nāhuatl)
Poop = Pōptli
Rask = Lazquitl
RedRodent = Letlōtentli
Ryuu Majin = Liōmachintli
Silver Fenrir = Cilhuelpenlitl
Strype = Citlaiptli
Terra = Tellatl
The Wielder = Huīltelli
WolfKnightX = Huolponayteccitl
Wolfstar = Huolpoztalli
Eiji Yanagami = Yanacamiēchitl