Name of Mexico

Wikipedia

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 Mexicomeans place of the Mexica but the ethnonym Mexicatl itself is of unknown etymology.^[1] An alternate possibility is that the name may come from the word mexixin, a cress that grew in the swamplands of Lake Texcoco.^{[citation needed]} 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 was not actually a state or a contiguous part of land, in modern times it would have been 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.

In 1821, the continental part of New Spain seceded from Spain during the Trienio Liberal, in which Agustin de Iturbide marched triumphantly with his Army of the Three Guarantees (religion, independence, and unity). This was followed by the birth of the short-lived Mexican Empirethat used the “Mexico” name according to the convention used previously by Roman Empire (Latin: Imperium Romanum) and the Holy Roman Empire, whereby the capital gives rise to the name of the Empire. This was the first recorded use of “Mexico” as a country title.

After the Empire fell and the Republic was established in 1824, a Federation name form was adopted; which was, at most times, more de jure than de facto. The Mexican name stuck, leading to the formation of the Mexican Republic which formally is known as the United Mexican States.

Complications arose with the capital’s former colloquial and semi-official name “Ciudad de Mexico, Distrito Federal (Mexico, D.F.)”, which appears on postal addresses and is frequently cited in the media, thus creating a duplication whereas the shortened name was “Mexico, D.F., Mexico”. Legally, the name was simply Distrito Federal (Federal District or District of the Federation). This ended with the change in statute of Mexico City into a state in 2016. Today it’s officially called only “Ciudad de México, México” abbreviated CDMX, Mexico.

The official name of the country is the “United Mexican States” (Spanish: Estados Unidos Mexicanos), since it is a federation of thirty-two states. The official name was first used in the Constitution of 1824, and was retained in the constitutions of 1857 and 1917. Informally, “Mexico” is used along with “Mexican Republic” (República Mexicana). On 22 November 2012, outgoing Mexican President Felipe Calderón proposed changing the official name of the country to simply México.^[2]

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Name_of_Mexico