Roger Mexico

[David Casseres]

On 12/4/05, Keith McMullen <keithsz at sbcglobal.net> wrote:
> Perfect name for a Jessica Swanlake lover:
> "Mexico" is said to be  from a Nahuatl word.  The Nahuatl people were
> also known under the broader term of Aztec.  It is from the Nahuatl
> that we get words like coyote and tomato.  They built a huge city on an
> island in the middle of Lake Texcoco, which used to lie where Mexico
> City is today (it has since been drained).  As many as 300,000 people
> lived there, and they traveled between the island and the mainland via
> several large causeways (causing very little smog in the process).  One
> name of this city was Metzthixihtlico.
> (from http://www.takeourword.com/TOW126/page2.html)

To see Mexico City as it is now:
http://homepage.mac.com/helipilot/PhotoAlbum20.html

The name Mexico ultimately comes from the Mexica tribe that inhabited
the area around Lake Texcoco.  It still puzzles me, though, as a
surname for a fictitous Englishman, especially since so many other
surnames in Our Book are quite easily decoded.