As it commonly occurs in the spelling of indigenous names, there are many variations in spelling for indigenous words. "Toba" is an initially pejorative name of Guarani origin, but it is of ample use among the Qom themselves, in the self-naming of their communities and in the national census of Argentina. The name "tová" (forehead) came to be as a result of the idea that the Qom, according to some sources, used to shave the hair off of the front part of their scalps. Other sources attribute it to a custom, not currently practiced, of removing the hair from one's eyebrows. For these motives, the Spanish from Asuncion, called them "frentones" (meaning large forehead, a name also given to the Abipón people and the Guaicurues) following the first encounter between the two groups in the 16th century. The generalization of the toba name did not occur among the Qom themselves until the beginning of the 18th century. 