English 'Mexico' comes from Spanish from Nahuatl Mēxihco, the Aztec capital — probably meaning 'place at the navel of the moon', with the 'x' preserving an old /sh/ pronunciation that Spanish later changed.
A country in North America, bordered by the United States to the north and Guatemala and Belize to the south.
English 'Mexico' derives from Spanish 'México', from Nahuatl 'Mēxihco' (the place name for the Aztec capital, now Mexico City). The Nahuatl name is generally analyzed as 'place of the Mexica' — the Mexica being the Aztec people. The meaning of 'Mexica' itself is debated. The most common scholarly proposal connects it to 'mētztli' (moon) + '-xīc-' (navel/center) + '-co' (place), yielding 'place at the center/navel of the moon' — possibly a reference to Lake Texcoco. Other
The 'x' in Mexico represents an old Spanish spelling convention. In 16th-century Spanish, 'x' was pronounced /ʃ/ (like English 'sh'), matching the Nahuatl pronunciation 'Me-SHEE-ko'. Spanish later shifted this sound to /x/ (like 'ch' in Scottish 'loch'), which is why modern Spaniards say 'Me-HEE-ko'. Mexico retained the original spelling as a marker of national identity.