The name "Aztec" originates from the Nahuatl word aztecah, which translates to "People of Aztlan," referencing the ancestral homeland of this group.
The most accepted interpretation translates "Aztlan" as "Place of Herons," derived from the Nahuatl word Aztatlan.
Some myths claim that "Mexica" is the root of "Mexico," though this is as inaccurate as saying "Canada" derives from "Canadian." Both terms share the root "Mexihco," which refers to "Those who live in Mexihco," the Nahuatl name for their settlement.
The Mexica were part of the larger Nahua ethnic group, characterized by the Nahuatl language.
Referring to all Nahuatl speakers as "Aztecs" is incorrect.
Nahuatl speakers identified themselves as Nahuas, meaning "those who speak clearly." While all Aztecs were Nahuas, not all Nahuas were Aztecs.
Nahuatl-speaking peoples also existed outside Aztec influence, such as the Pipiles in El Salvador and the Nicaraos in Nicaragua.
The Nahuatl-speaking peoples, including the Aztecs and Nahuatlacas, often spoke of their ancestors' migration from Aztlan to their eventual homeland in Central Mexico.
The root "Atl", meaning water, originates from the Nahuatl language of the Aztecs, not Greek or Arabic.
While there is no direct linguistic link between Nahuatl and Greek or Arabic, let's explore this in a broader context.
In Nahuatl, "Atl" directly means water.
If Plato's Atlantis story originated in Egypt and Nahuatl's "Atl" originates in Mesoamerica, both may independently tap into universal myths of water-related destruction (e.g., floods, and deluges).
While "Atl" in Nahuatl, meaning water, likely has no direct etymological link to Atlantis, the thematic connection to water is striking.
But in the Nahuatl language we find immediately the radical a, atl, which signifies water, war, and the top of the head.
And there is wanting neither a catastrophe--for Xibalba had a terrific inundation--nor the name of Atlas, of which the etymology is found only in the Nahuatl tongue: it comes from atl, water; and we know that a city of Atlan (near the water) still existed on the Atlantic side of the Isthmus of Panama at the time of the Conquest."
Meaning: "Nahui" means "four," and "Ocelotl" means "jaguar" in Nahuatl, indicating the era characterized by jaguars.
Meaning: "Nahui" means "four," and "Ehécatl" means "wind" in Nahuatl, indicating the era characterized by wind.
Meaning: "Nahui" means "four," and "Quiahuitl" means "rain" in Nahuatl, indicating the era characterized by rain.
Meaning: "Nahui" means "four," and "Atl" means "water" in Nahuatl, indicating the era characterized by water.
Meaning: "Nahui" means "four," and "Ollin" means "movement" in Nahuatl, indicating the movement or change that characterizes this era.
The name "Atlan," derived from the Nahuatl word for water, is echoed in place names and myths, suggesting a connection to Atlantis.
Instead, the Nahuatl language offers the word "atl" (water), leading to "atlan" (on the border of or amid the water), which could be the origin of the name Atlantic.
"Tollan" or "Tula" means "Place of Reeds" in Nahuatl, which is a symbolic name often used to describe major city centers or legendary places in Mesoamerican mythology.
There are also some proper names, both personal and geographical, which are clearly of Nahuatl derivation.
The Pipils, their immediate neighbors to the South, cultivating the hot and fertile slope which descends from the central plateau to the Pacific Ocean, were an Aztec race of pure blood, speaking a dialect of Nahuatl, very little different from that heard in the schools of classic Tezcuco.
Later, when the Spanish occupation had brought with it thousands of Nahuatl speaking followers, who supplied the interpreters for the conquerers, Nahuatl names became much more abundant, and were adopted by the natives in addressing the Spaniards.
In these names, all of them pure Nahuatl, the word Tecpan means the royal residence or capital; Quauhtemallan (Guatemala), “the place of the wood-pile;” Utlatlan, “the place of the giant cane;” Atitlan, “the place by the water;” Tezolotlan, “the place of the narrow stone,” or “narrowed by stones.”
"Atlantic" and "Atlas" may come from the Nahuatl word "atl" (water) and "atlan" (bordering water).
The Temple of Cholula, also known as Tlachihualtepetl (meaning "handmade mountain" in Nahuatl), is an ancient archaeological site located in present-day Mexico.