Gulf of Mexico numerous bays and smaller inlets. A number of rivers empty into the gulf, most notably the Mississippi River and Rio Grande in the northern gulf, and the Grijalva and Usumacinta rivers in the southern gulf. The land that forms the gulf's coast, including many long, narrow barrier islands, is almost uniformly low-lying and is characterized by marshes and swamps as well as stretches of sandy beach. The Gulf of Mexico is an excellent example of a passive margin. The continental shelf is quite wide at most points along the coast, most notably at the Florida and Yucatán Peninsulas. The shelf
Name of Mexico America, and on some occasions in the Iberian Peninsula, even though in most official or regional languages of Spain (Asturian, Leonese and Catalan) and Portuguese, the "x" is still pronounced . Name of Mexico The name of Mexico has several hypotheses that entail the origin, history, and use of the name "Mexico", which dates back to 14th century Mesoamerica. The Nahuatl word "Mexico" means "place of the Mexica" but the ethnonym "Mexicatl" itself is of unknown etymology. An alternate possibility is that the name may come from the word "mexixin", a cress that grew in the swamplands of Lake Texcoco.