List of Mexican State Name Etymologies (31 items)report

• [State name]: Aguascalientes
  [Language of origin]: Spanish
  [Source word]: aguas calientes
  [Meaning and notes]: "Hot waters". When the city was first founded in 1575, it was given this name for the abundance of hot springs in the region, which still are exploited for numerous spas and for domestic use. The state was named after its capital city, Aguascalientes City.
  

• [State name]: Baja California
  [Language of origin]: Spanish
  [Source word]:
  [Meaning and notes]: "Lower California". The Spanish colony of California was divided into two—upper and lower—in 1804. The Mexican territory of Upper California, or Alta California, would in 1848 become the United States states of California, Nevada, Utah, and parts of Arizona and Wyoming. See also: Origin of the name California.
  

• [State name]: Baja California Sur
  [Language of origin]: Spanish
  [Source word]:
  [Meaning and notes]: "Southern Baja California". The southern part of Baja California See also: Origin of the name California.
  

• [State name]: Campeche
  [Language of origin]: Yucatec Mayan
  [Source word]: Kaan Peech
  [Meaning and notes]: The state takes its name from the city of Campeche, which was founded in 1540 by Spanish Conquistadores as San Francisco de Campeche atop the preexisting Maya city of Canpech or Kimpech. The native name means “place of snakes and ticks.”
  

• [State name]: Chiapas
  [Language of origin]: Nahuatl
  [Source word]: Chiapan
  [Meaning and notes]:
  

• [State name]: Chihuahua
  [Language of origin]: Nahuatl
  [Source word]: xicuahua
  [Meaning and notes]: The state takes its name from its capital city, Chihuahua City. This name is thought to derive from the Nahuatl Xicuahua, or "dry, sandy place".
  

• [State name]: Coahuila
  [Language of origin]: Nahuatl
  [Source word]: coatl + huila
  [Meaning and notes]: Origin disputed. May mean "serpent that flies" (coatl "snake" + huila "to fly") or "place of many trees" (quautli "trees" + la "abundance")
  

• [State name]: Colima
  [Language of origin]: Nahuatl
  [Source word]: Coliman
  [Meaning and notes]: The state takes its name from its capital city, Colima City.
  

• [State name]: Durango
  [Language of origin]: Basque
  [Source word]:
  [Meaning and notes]: The state is named after its capital city, Durango City, which was named after the city of Durango in the Basque Country, northern Spain. During colonial times it was part of the Spanish realm of Nueva Vizcaya, "New Biscay", a province of New Spain.
  

• [State name]: Guanajuato
  [Language of origin]: Purépecha
  [Source word]: Quanax Huato
  [Meaning and notes]: "Place of the monstrous frogs". The state is named after its capital city, Guanajuato City.
  

• [State name]: Guerrero
  [Language of origin]: Spanish
  [Source word]:
  [Meaning and notes]: "Warrior". Named after Vicente Guerrero, a hero of the Mexican War of Independence and an early president of Mexico. The surname Guerrero, meaning "warrior" in Spanish, is derived from guerra "war", a Germanic loanword related to the English word war.
  

• [State name]: Hidalgo
  [Language of origin]: Spanish
  [Source word]:
  [Meaning and notes]: Named after Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla, considered the initiator of the Mexican War of Independence in 1810. See also: Hidalgo (nobility)
  

• [State name]: Jalisco
  [Language of origin]: Nahuatl
  [Source word]: Xālixco
  [Meaning and notes]: "Place with sand on the ground".
  

• [State name]: México
  [Language of origin]: Nahuatl
  [Source word]: Mēxihco
  [Meaning and notes]: The state is named after the Mexica.
  

• [State name]: Michoacán
  [Language of origin]: Nahuatl
  [Source word]: Michhuahcān
  [Meaning and notes]: "Place of possessors of fish".
  

• [State name]: Morelos
  [Language of origin]: Spanish
  [Source word]:
  [Meaning and notes]: Named after José María Morelos, one of the leaders of Mexico's struggle against Spain during the War of Independence.
  

• [State name]: Nayarit
  [Language of origin]: Cora
  [Source word]: Naáyeri (plural: Naáyerite)
  [Meaning and notes]: "Place of Nayar", referring to a 16th-century Cora chief
  

• [State name]: Nuevo León
  [Language of origin]: Spanish
  [Source word]:
  [Meaning and notes]: "New Leon". Named after the Kingdom of León, one of the historical realms that formed Spain.
  

• [State name]: Oaxaca
  [Language of origin]: Nahuatl
  [Source word]: Huāxyacac
  [Meaning and notes]: After its capital city, Oaxaca City, whose name in turn derives from the Nahuatl for "on the nose of the huajes", huajes being a type of tree with an edible pod quite common locally.
  

• [State name]: Puebla
  [Language of origin]: Spanish
  [Source word]: Pueblo
  [Meaning and notes]: "People". The state is named after its capital city, Puebla City. The state name is from the verb poblar
  

• [State name]: Querétaro
  [Language of origin]: Purépecha
  [Source word]: Crettaro
  [Meaning and notes]: "Place of cliffs".The state is named after its capital city, Querétaro City.
  
  

• [State name]: Quintana Roo
  [Language of origin]: Spanish
  [Source word]:
  [Meaning and notes]: Named after Andrés Quintana Roo, a hero from the War of Independence.
  

• [State name]: San Luis Potosí
  [Language of origin]: Spanish
  [Source word]:
  [Meaning and notes]: Named after Louis IX, and the mines of Potosí in Bolivia.
  

• [State name]: Sinaloa
  [Language of origin]: Mayo
  [Source word]: sinalobola
  [Meaning and notes]: Origin of name is disputed. May mean "round pitahaya (cacti)" or "cut corn"
  

• [State name]: Sonora
  [Language of origin]: Opata
  [Source word]: xunuta
  [Meaning and notes]: "In the place of the corn".
  

• [State name]: Tabasco
  [Language of origin]: Nahuatl
  [Source word]: Tlapaco
  [Meaning and notes]: The name appears in the chronicles of Bernal Díaz del Castillo during the conquest era, who says it comes from the name of a river in the area, Tabasco River.
  

• [State name]: Tamaulipas
  [Language of origin]: Huasteca Nahuatl
  [Source word]: Tamaholipa
  [Meaning and notes]: "Place with high mountains".
  

• [State name]: Tlaxcala
  [Language of origin]: Nahuatl
  [Source word]: Tlaxcallān
  [Meaning and notes]: "Place of tortillas". The state is named after the capital of Tlaxcala City, which is named after the pre-Columbian city-state of Tlaxcallan.
  

• [State name]: Veracruz
  [Language of origin]: Spanish
  [Source word]: vera cruz
  [Meaning and notes]: "True Cross." The state is named after the port of Veracruz City. This name was given to the first Spanish city in New Spain by Hernán Cortés in 1519, in the form La Villa Rica de la Vera Cruz, "The Rich Village of the True Cross".
  

• [State name]: Yucatán
  [Language of origin]: Chontal Maya
  [Source word]: Yokot'an
  [Meaning and notes]: An apocryphal story goes that when the Spaniards first waded ashore on the Yucatán Peninsula, they asked the members of the local population, who were watching, "What is this place?" The local indígenas, not understanding Spanish, asked "What did you say?" (Yuca-hatlanás?). The Spanish assumed that anyone would understand their language, and took it to be the name.Another legend has it that when Spaniards asked a local native "Where are we?", the native answered "Yuc Atan", meaning "I'm not from here", which Spaniards assumed as the name of the place.
  The most likely derivation is from the native Chontal Maya people, who call themselves Yokot'anob or Yokot'an, "speakers of Yoko ochoco."
  
  

• [State name]: Zacatecas
  [Language of origin]: Nahuatl
  [Source word]: zacatēcah
  [Meaning and notes]: "People from the Place of Grass". The state is named after its capital city, Zacatecas City.
  

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