What does the Spanish word Navajo mean?

Answer 1

The word Navajo does not come from Spanish. The Spanish learned it in the middle 1500s when they were asking Pueblo Tewa speakers names of the the different Apache related groups. They were told the Dine' were the "Apache of the wide or river bottom fields". "Navahu'u" is Tewa for "farm fields in a valley". Navajo is how the Spanish then spelled it.

The Navajo language is related to other Apache languages about the same as Italian is to Spanish or Portuguese. The word Apache is thought to come from the Zuni language word for "enemy" or "stranger"

Some other Apache groups were the Jicarilla ("little basket") and Mescalero ( mescal was a food staple) Apache.

Answer 2

The word "Navajo" is not from the Navajo language. Thier name for themselves is Dine' (di -ne? di as in did and ne as in neigh but shorter and with rising tone like a question). It means "people". The language is Dine' Bizaad. "People's language" "bi" is a possessive. The term Navajo comes from the spanish Apachu de Nabajo in the 1620's for the people in the Chama valley. It means apahce with the or of the big fields. They grew a lot of corn unlike other apache cousin groups who grew less. The term "apache" may come from zuni or yavapai. Navajo may come from Tewa "navahu’u" meaning farms fields in the valley.