Meztli
A feminine Mexican name meaning "moon".
Name Census estimates that about 321 living Americans carry the first name Meztli. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Meztli today is around 14 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Meztli births was 2013 (21 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Meztli. Below you will find a gender breakdown showing how the name splits between male and female registrations, a year-by-year popularity chart stretching back to 1880, decade-level totals, the top US states for this name, its meaning and etymology, and a set of frequently asked questions with data-backed answers.
People living today
321
~ 1 in 1,067,771 Americans
Peak year
2013
21 babies that year
Average age
14
years old
2024 SSA rank
#7,119
Tracked since 1995
Census
Meztli in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 243 people with the first name Meztli, which placed it at #33,857 in the published first-name tables. This is a snapshot of people who already had the name at the time of the Census.
The SSA sections elsewhere on this page answer a different question: how often parents gave the name to babies over time. The "people living today" figure on this page is different again: it is a current estimate built from SSA birth records and age-based survival rates, so the two numbers are not expected to match exactly.
2020 Census rank
#33,857
National first-name rank
People counted
243
243 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Hispanic or Latino
97.5% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Meztli
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Meztli is Hispanic at 97.5%. The next largest groups are White (1.6%) and Black (0.4%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself.
The bar chart below shows how people with the first name Meztli described their own race and ethnicity on the 2020 Census form. The Census Bureau groups responses into six broad categories: White, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Asian and Pacific Islander, American Indian and Alaska Native, and Two or More Races. When a category has too few respondents for a given name, the Bureau suppresses the figure to protect individual privacy, which is why some names show fewer than six slices.
Percentages are shown so the breakdown is easy to read across every published category. Because the 2020 Census first-name file also includes raw headcounts for each group, Name Census can show those alongside the percentages in the legend and hover tooltip.
Keep in mind that these are self-reported numbers. A first name does not determine a person's race or ethnicity, and the distribution you see here reflects the specific population who happened to carry the name Meztli at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Hispanic or Latino97.5% · 237
- White1.6% · 4
- Black or African American0.4% · 1
- Two or more races0.4% · 1
Popularity
Meztli: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Meztli from the 1990s through to the 2020s, spanning 4 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 130 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Meztli remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Meztli by decade
The table below breaks the full SSA timeline into ten-year windows. Each row shows how many male and female babies were given the name Meztli during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Meztlis live
Origin
Meaning and history of Meztli
The given name Meztli has its origins in the Nahuatl language, spoken by the Aztec people of ancient Mexico. Nahuatl was the primary language of the Aztec Empire, which flourished from the 14th to the 16th century in what is now central Mexico.
Meztli is derived from the Nahuatl word "metztli," which means "moon." The name is believed to have been given to children born under a significant lunar phase or during a significant moon cycle. In Aztec mythology, the moon played a significant role, and various deities were associated with it.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Meztli can be found in the Codex Mendoza, a 16th-century Aztec codex that documented various aspects of Aztec life, including names and their meanings. The name Meztli is mentioned in the context of naming practices and its association with the moon.
Throughout history, there have been several notable individuals who bore the name Meztli. One of the earliest recorded was Meztli Cuauhtlequetzqui, a 15th-century Aztec warrior and military leader who served under the Aztec ruler Moctezuma I.
Another notable figure was Meztli Chalchiuhtlicue, a 16th-century Aztec noblewoman who was a prominent figure in the court of Moctezuma II, the last Aztec emperor before the Spanish conquest.
In more recent times, Meztli Rodríguez Montemayor (1926-2017) was a Mexican anthropologist and academic who made significant contributions to the study of indigenous cultures in Mexico.
Meztli Flores (born 1983) is a contemporary Mexican actress and singer known for her work in telenovelas and films.
Meztli Luz García (born 1995) is a Mexican professional boxer who has won several championships in her weight class.
While the name Meztli is not as common today as it once was among the Aztec people, it remains a powerful reminder of the rich cultural heritage of ancient Mexico and the significance of the moon in Aztec mythology and cosmology.
People
Meztli + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Meztli as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with M
Other first names starting with M with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Meztli: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Meztli?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 321 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Meztli going back to 1880 and adjusting each cohort for expected survival using CDC actuarial life tables. The result is an age-weighted living-bearer count, not a raw birth total. That works out to about 1 in 1,067,771 US residents.
Is Meztli a common name?
We classify Meztli as "Very Rare". It ranks above 80% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 324 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Meztli most popular?
The single biggest year for Meztli was 2013, when 21 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Meztli is about 14 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Meztli in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 243 people with the name Meztli, or 0.08 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #33,857 in the national Census ranking for first names.
Why is the Census count different from the living estimate?
Because they measure different things. The Census figure is a count of people who had the name Meztli in 2020. The living estimate aims to answer a current question instead: how many people with the name are alive today, based on SSA birth records and age-based survival rates. Since one number is a 2020 snapshot and the other is a present-day estimate, they are not expected to be identical.
What does the Census say about the gender split for Meztli?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Meztli leans strongly female. 225 people counted with this name were female (93.4%), compared with 16 male bearers (6.6%). The Census view is a snapshot of people living with the name in 2020, while the SSA section above tracks births across time.
What does the Census say about the background of people named Meztli?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Meztli is Hispanic at 97.5%. The next largest groups are White (1.6%) and Black (0.4%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself. The percentages in the chart above come from self-reported race and Hispanic-origin responses in the 2020 Census.
Which group reports the name Meztli most often in the Census?
Hispanic is the largest reported group for people named Meztli in the 2020 Census, accounting for 97.5% (237 people in the published table).
Why can the Census sex total and race total differ slightly?
The Census Bureau published separate 2020 tables for sex and for race/Hispanic origin, and the released figures can differ slightly because of privacy protection in the public files. That is why this page treats the gender section and the race/origin section as two related snapshots instead of forcing them into one identical total.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only includes names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files have no Census demographic snapshot. When that happens, the SSA trend, gender history, and state sections still appear, but the 2020 Census demographic sections are omitted.
What does the SSA popularity chart show?
The chart tracks births, not the number of people alive with the name today. Each point shows how many babies were given the name Meztli in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Meztli a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Meztli in the SSA data are female. You can see the full per-sex comparison in the gender distribution section above, which includes the latest year rank, birth count, and peak year for each sex.
Is Meztli still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Meztli in 2024, and the page above shows its latest-year rank where available. A name can be well past its peak and still remain in steady use, especially if it built up a large population over earlier decades.
Why can a name have a lot of living bearers even if it is not trendy now?
Because living-bearer counts and current baby-name popularity measure different things. A name like Meztli can build up a very large population over many decades, even if fewer parents are choosing it now than they did at its peak.
Where does this data come from?
First-name figures come from the Social Security Administration's national baby name files, which cover every name on a birth certificate from 1880 to 2024. Living-bearer estimates layer in CDC actuarial life tables broken out by sex to account for mortality. The population baseline (342,754,338) is the Census Bureau's latest national estimate. You can read the full calculation on our methodology page.
How many Americans are named Meztli?
Our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers how many people have the name Meztli at a glance, with the living-bearer count up front.