Why, how, and when did people start calling Mejico a Mexico?

Question

My teacher told us that it's an extra credit and whe told us that long time ago, people called Mexico a Mejico but she wants to know why, how, and when.

Answer 1

Pronunciation... in spanish X sounds like J

So, Xavier = Javier (in sound)

Thats it.

Answer 2

This may help, it is from wikipedia.  Basically the word we consider came from an ancient language to spanish as it was spoken many centuries ago.  The pronunciation of the letters changed over time and Mejico is a spelling that better represents current spanish pronunciation for the name of the country.  If you read the possible original meanings of the word below and consider the a it could have meant they were going to Place where Mexitli lives or the place at the center of the moon.

After winning independence from Spain, it was decided that the new country would be named after its capital city, whose original name of foundation was México-Tenochtitlan, in reference to the Mexica tribe, the main group of people of what came to be known as the Aztec civilization. The origin of the name of the Mexica is obscure and subject to diverse interpretations. Some[9] argue that it derives from the Nahuatl Mexitl or Mexitli, a secret name for the god of war and patron of the Aztecs, Huitzilopochtli, in which case Mexico means "Place where Mexitli lives". Another hypothesis is that the word Mexiko derives from the metztli ("moon"), xictli ("navel", "center" or "son"), and the suffix -co (place), in which case it means "Place at the center of the moon" or "Place at the center of the Lake Moon", in reference to Lake Texcoco. The system of interconnected lakes, of which Texcoco was at the center, had the form of a rabbit, the same image that the Aztecs saw in the moon. Tenochtitlan was located at the center (or navel) of the lake (or rabbit/moon).[10] Still another hypothesis suggests that it is derived from Mectli, the goddess of maguey.[10]

The name of the city was transliterated to Spanish as México with the phonetic value of the x in Medieval Spanish, which represented the voiceless postalveolar fricative /ʃ/. This sound, as well as the voiced postalveolar fricative /ʒ/, represented by a j, evolved into a voiceless velar fricative /x/ during the sixteenth century.[11] This led to the use of the variant Méjico in many publications in Spanish, most notably in Spain, whereas in Mexico and some other Spanish–speaking countries México was the preferred spelling. In recent years the Real Academia Española, which regulates the Spanish language, determined that both variants are acceptable in Spanish but that the normative recommended spelling is México.[12] The majority of publications in all Spanish-speaking countries now adhere to the new norm, even though the alternative variant is still occasionally used.[13] In English, the x in Mexico represents neither the original nor the current sound, but the consonant cluster

Answer 3

Mexico was called Mejico by the Spaniards, and today in Spain the most accepted way to write it is with a "j".

There are historic and political reasons for the use of the x in Mexico:

1. The ancient name of the Aztec's capital was pronounced like "meshico", but the Spanish did not have a way to write down the "sh" because that sound does not exist in Spanish. Therefore, the Spaniards inserted the "x" in all names where the "sh"  was present. That is the reason why so many places in Mexico bear an "x". Actually Mexicans give the "x" three different sounds as for the names of places are concerned: as a "j" (as in Mexico or Oaxaca); as an English "sh" (as in Xola) and as an "s" (as in Xochimilco).

2. The use of the "X" in the name Mexico had also political reasons, as a way to claim independence from Spain and the Spanish tradition. However, the use of the "x" was not consistent, at least in the 19th century, not even by the Mexican central government. For example, the first Mexican postage stamps are dated of 1856, and they state "Mejico".