Tenam comes from the Nahuatl voice tenamitl which means "fortification", "Wall" or "defense". The Tojolabal – Spanish dictionary records the same word as “olla delgada, tinaja”. For his part, Franz Bloom mentions that the name Tenam is assigned to a group of ruins in the Comitán region, preferably located in the upper part of the mountains. The second name corresponds to the old El Puente farm, located in what is currently the Francisco Sarabia neighborhood.