"Wajxaklajun" means "eighteen" in the Chuj language; this has been interpreted as deriving from the site originally consisting of eighteen mounds. This is a modern interpretation however, and it is possible that the name originally derived from a Maya calendrical name. A longer form of the name has been recorded as Chonjab' Tepan Wajxaklajun; this translates as "town and temple eighteen", from "chonhap"' "town", and "tepan" "church". Alternative names for the site include Yolk'u (meaning "in the sun") and El Calvario, sometimes contracted to Carvao, or Curvao. At the time of the Spanish conquest of Guatemala, Wajxaklajun was given the Nahuatl name "Ystapalan" (meaning "place of salt"); this was later modified to "Ystatlan" ("abundance of salt" in Nahuatl).