Change Mexico's name to Mexico, president says

President Felipe Calderon Thursday proposed changing Mexico's official name from the United Mexican States to just Mexico, AFP reports. Calderon, who steps down in eight days after six years in office, said there was no need to emulate other nations as it did in the 19th century. "It's time we Mexicans again take up the beauty and simplicity of the name of our fatherland: Mexico. A name we chant, we sing, that makes us happy and fills us with pride," he said. Mexico means belly button of the moon in the Nahuatl language. After independence from Spain in 1821, Mexico called itself the Mexican Empire. Three years later, after adopting its first federal constitution, it changed the country's name to the United Mexican States. That name has stuck through several changes of the constitution. At a ceremony at the presidential residence Los Pinos, Calderon said he would be submitting legislation to Congress for the name change. "It is a matter of major importance, because a country's name expresses a symbolic relationship with all that it is, with its people, its origins, its culture, its customs and above all its identity," he said.