Photo: Ceremony of the Mexica, or Aztec, people for whom the Gulf of Mexico is named in the Nahuatl language. By Álvaro de la Paz Franco
Spanish maps called it the Golfo de Mexico as early as 1559, which can be seen on antique maps for sale on Etsy.
The Gulf took its name from the Mexica people, aka the Aztecs, in the Indigenous language of Nahuatl. The gulf has been named "Mexico" even longer than the county of Mexico, which was a colony called New Spain until Mexican independence in 1821.
In the late 1700's, New Spain included the entire gulf coast of what is now the United States, Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida.
Now, US President Trump plans to erase the Indigenous name for the body of water, calling it the Gulf of America.
