Creating “Belize”: The Mapping and Naming History of a Liminal Locale

@article{Restall2019CreatingT,
  title={Creating “Belize”: The Mapping and Naming History of a Liminal Locale},
  author={Matthew Restall},
  journal={Terrae Incognitae},
  year={2019},
  volume={51},
  pages={35 - 5}
}
The origins of the settlement in southwest Yucatan that subsequently became the British colony and then nation of Belize, along with the etymology of the toponym Belize, are poorly understood and clouded by colonialist mythology. Using cartographic, archival, and other textual sources, including some in Yucatec Mayan, this article offers a revisionist argument regarding initial British settlement in the region and proposes a new solution to the mystery of the name Belize. 
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Citation Type

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Empire on Edge: The British Struggle for Order in Belize during Yucatan's Caste War, 1847–1901
Maya militia: the defense and government of colonial Ixil, Yucatan

References

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Thus set on a steady path toward full institutionalization as a formal colony in the 1820s, Belize was officially named and identified on maps as British Honduras from 1862 to
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109 (who cites a footnote by David Pendergast in Palenque, p. 21, who in turns states that the name likely "derives from the Yucatecan Mayan word belize, meaning 'muddy water
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