Nuevo México is often incorrectly believed to have taken its name from the post-independent nation of Mexico. But as early as 1561[5] (260 years before Mexican independence), Spanish colonial explorers used el Nuevo México to refer to Cíbola, cities of wealth reported to exist far to the north of the recently conquered Aztec Empire.[6][7][8] This name also evoked the Mexica people's accounts of their ancestral origin in Aztlán to the north before their migration to Mexico centuries prior. The Nahuatl-language history of the Mexica people, the Crónica Mexicayotl, dated to 1609, makes this identification explicit, describing how the Mexica left "their home there in Old Mexico Aztlan Quinehuayan Chicomoztoc, which today they call New Mexico (yancuic mexico)."

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Yeah but Isn't this kind of like finding out that New York has been called New York since before the actual town of York was founded?

RIP New Amsterdam

That area, and a whole lot more like Texas and Arizona, was called Nuevo Mexico before both The US and Mexico gained their respective independences.

After the genocide of the actual American people, why not?

To be fair, it doesn't actually mean "coloured", it means "reddish". Spanish is weird like that. Anyway, I would like to direct your attention to Nevada meaning "snowed" or "snow-covered" and Florida meaning "flowery". Also, Montana is just "montaña" (mountain) misspelled.

Colorado sounds too Mexican.

Google and Apple would update their maps immediately.

Bro why was this going to happen?