Mexico got its name from the Mexica people (wrongly named as Aztecs by contemporary archeologists). It comes from their capital city name: Mexico-Tenochtitlan. It means "place of cactus in the middle of the Moon Lake".
Present-day Mexico City, capital of Mexico.
Cactus are in Mexico
Mexico-Tenochtitlan, commonly known as Tenochtitlan was an Aztec altepetl (city-state) located on an island in Lake Texcoco, in the Valley of Mexico. Founded on June 20, 1325, it became the capital of the expanding Aztec Empire in the 15th century,
It came from the name of the ancient Aztec capital, Mexico-Tenochtitlan. Such name means "Cactus island in the middle of the Lake Moon". When New Spain gained its independence from Spain in 1821, it was renamed as Mexico which literally would mean "In the center of the Lake Moon". Lake Moon is what Aztecs called the Texcoco lake, where they found their capital city.
The Aztecs named their capital Tenochtitlan which means "the place of the fruit of the prickly pear cactus",because this food was like a lake and this lake was in the middle of the old Mexico's.
The Aztecs seen a Cactus, with an eagle perched on a cactus, eating a snake. And as their ancient legend goes, the Gods said this was what they would see when they found the place for their new Capital City. So they named it Tenochtitlan, which literally means "Place of the Prickly Pear Cactus".
An eagle atop a cactus, devouring a snake. It is present on the Mexican coat of arms, and on the Mexican flag.
Mexico Capital: Mexico City Mexico Flag: three vertical stripes of green, white and red with the Mexican coat of arms in the middle white segment; the coat of arms shows an eagle devouring a snake, sitting atop a cactus.
Originally, it was the name given to their land by the Aztec civilization, who knew themselves as the Mexica people.When Mexico attained its independence from Spain in 1821, the colonists decided to rename their new country (formerly known as Viceroyalty of the New Spain) to its previous form: Mexico.
First off it's Tenochtitlan. Secondly, it was in Mexico because of a prophecy. The prophecy was that when they (The Aztecs) found an eagle perched on a cactus with a snake in it's talon that they would settle there.
cactus