[7][8] The name Aztec was coined by Alexander von Humboldt, who combined Aztlán ("place of the heron"), their mythic homeland, and tec(atl) "people of".

[6][11] After the decline of the Toltecs, about 1200 CE, various Nahua-speaking nomadic peoples entered the Valley of Mexico, possibly all from Aztlan, whose location is unknown.

[16] After the rise of the Aztec Triple Alliance, the Tenochca Mexica, the inhabitants of Tenochtitlan, assumed a dominant position over their two allied city-states, Texcoco and Tlacopan.

The Templo Mayor (Main Temple) and nearby buildings are rich in the symbolism of Aztec cosmology that linked rain and fertility, warfare, sacrifice, and imperialism with the sacred mission to preserve the sun and the cosmic order.

[17] The Templo Mayor was "the site of large-scale sacrifices of enemy warriors which served intertwined political and religious ends (Berdan 1982: 111–119; Carrasco 1991).

"[17] It was a double pyramid-temple dedicated to Tlaloc, the ancient Central Mexican rain god, and Huitzilopochtli, the Mexica tribal nomen, who, as the politically dominant deity in Mexico, was associated with the sun.

[18] Over time, the Mexica separated Huitzilopochtli from Tezcatlipoca, another god that was more predominantly idolized, redefining their relative realms of power, reshaping the myths, and making him politically superior.

[21] [better source needed] Forbidden from resettling in their destroyed home, which was rebuilt as Mexico City, the Mexica were forced to submit to the King of Spain, receive baptism and convert to Christianity.

Some of the remaining military and nobility, including the last emperor, Cuauhtémoc, were conscripted to assist in further Spanish invasions, such as in Guatemala, to prevent any possibility of insurrection.

[26] Although Mexica names were largely suppressed during the colonial period as they were associated with pre-Christian beliefs, they experienced a revival in the 19th century following Mexican independence.

[27] In the 21st century, the Mexican government does not recognize ethnicity by ancestry but by language spoken, making the number of Mexica people in Mexico difficult to estimate.