List of Mexican state name etymologies

This article provides a collection of the etymologies of the names of the states of Mexico.

State name	Language of origin	Source word	Meaning and notes
Aguascalientes	Spanish	aguas calientes	"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.
Baja California	Spanish		"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.
Baja California Sur	Spanish		"Southern Baja California". See also: Origin of the name California.
Campeche	Spanish	?	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.
Chihuahua	Nahuatl	xicuahua	The state takes its name from its capital city, Chihuahua. This name is thought to derive from the Nahuatl Xicuahua, or "dry, sandy place".
Chiapas	Nahuatl	Chi(y)apan
Coahuila	Nahuatl		Origin disputed. May mean "serpent that flies" (coatl "snake" + huila "to fly") or "place of many trees" (quautli "trees" + la "abundance")
Colima	Nahuatl	Coliman	The state takes its name from its capital city, Colima.
Durango	Basque		The state is named after its capital city, Durango, which was named after the city of Durango, Biscay 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.
Guanajuato	Purépecha	Quanax Huato	"Froghill". The state is named after its capital city, Guanajuato.
Guerrero	Spanish		"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.
Hidalgo	Spanish		Named after Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla, considered the initiator of the Mexican War of Independence in 1810. See also: Hidalgo (Spanish nobility)
Jalisco	Nahuatl	Xālixco	"Place with sand on the ground".
México	Nahuatl	Mēxihco	The state is named after Mexico City, itself named after the Aztec capital Mexico Tenochtitlan.
Michoacán	Nahuatl	Michhuahcān	"Place of possessors of fish".
Morelos	Spanish		Named after José María Morelos, one of the leaders of Mexico's struggle against Spain during the War of Independence.
Nayarit	Cora		"Place of Nayar", referring to a 16th-century Cora chief
Nuevo León	Spanish		"New Leon". Named after the Kingdom of León, one of the historical realms that formed Spain.
Oaxaca	Nahuatl	Huāxyacac	After the city of Oaxaca, 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.
Puebla	Spanish		"People". The state is named after its capital city, Puebla.
Querétaro	Purépecha	Crettaro	"Place of cliffs".
Quintana Roo	Spanish		Named after Andrés Quintana Roo, a hero from the War of Independence.
San Luis Potosí	Spanish		Named after Louis IX, and the mines of Potosí in Bolivia.
Sinaloa	?	?	Origin of name is disputed. May mean "round pitahaya (cacti)" or "cut corn"
Sonora	Opata	xunuta	"In the place of the corn".
Tabasco	Nahuatl	?	"Flooded earth".
Tamaulipas	Nahuatl	?	"Place with high mountains".
Tlaxcala	Nahuatl	Tlaxcallān	"Place of tortillas". The state is named after the capital of Tlaxcala, which is named after the pre-Columbian city-state of Tlaxcallan.
Veracruz	Spanish	vera cruz	"True Cross." The state is named after the port of Veracruz. 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".
Yucatán	?	?	The (probably 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.
Zacatecas	Nahuatl	zacatēcah	"People from the Place of Grass". The state is named after its capital city, Zacatecas. The city was originally called Villa de Nuestra Señora de los Zacatecas, "House of Our Lady of the Zacatecs".