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Meaning & History
Short form of Popocatepetl, which means "smoking mountain" in Nahuatl from popoca "it smokes" and tepetl "mountain". This is the name of a hero in Mexican legend and Aztec mythology, the lover of Princess Ixtli. His wife-to-be died of grief when she mistakenly believed he had been killed in war, and Popo returned to her and carried her up to a hill, where they became the volcanoes Popocatépetl and Ixtaccihuatl (the latter of which resembles a woman sleeping on her back).