Name of Mexico

The name of México has several hypotheses that entail the origin, history, and use of the name México, which dates back to 14th century Mesoamerica. The Nahuatl word México means place of the Mexica but the ethnonym Mexicatl itself is of unknown etymology. Scholars have suggested "Hare of the Aloes" or a synonym of the war god Huitzilopochtli as possible roots. An alternate understanding is that the name may come from the word mexixin, a cress that grew in the swamplands of Texcoco Lake. It was an edible grass that the Aztecs or Mexica survived on as they settled where today lies México City.

The country México did not name its capital after itself, as in Mexico City—the accepted name internationally—but the converse actually applies. Before Spanish times, the capital was formally named Tenochtitlan, but was the seat of the Mexica Empire which is known as the Aztec Empire.

As far back as 1590, the Theatrum Orbis Terrarum showed that the northern part of the New World was known as "America Mexicana" (Mexican America), as México City was the seat for the New Spain viceroyalty. New Spain is mistaken as the old name for México, rather than the name of a large of expanse of land which covered much of North America and included the Caribbean and the Philippines. Since New Spain wasn't actually a state or a contiguous part of land, in modern times we would thought of it as a Jurisdiction under the command of the authorities in modern Mexico City. Under the Spaniards, Mexico was both the name of the capital and its sphere of influence, most of which exists as Greater Mexico City and the State of Mexico. Some parts of Puebla, Morelos and Hidalgo were also part of Spanish-era Mexico.

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