How do I say "means" in Spanish?

Question

How do I say "What does the name Quetzalcoatl mean?". Please explain how to ask what something "means".

Hi Will, Cisco and Goldie have good answers below. Edited your title for clarity. Welcome to Q&A! - StuartSD, Feb 21, 2012

Answer 1

My attempt.

¿Qué significa el nombre "Quetzalcoatl"?

Any corrections are welcome.

Good, ciscocaja. You could also use "querer decir". As odd as it looks, it also means "to mean". "¿Qué quiere decir Quetzalcoatl?" - Goldie_Miel, Feb 21, 2012

Interesting. Thank you, Goldiie_Miel! - ciscocaja, Feb 21, 2012

I always thought that "¿Qué quiere decir?" meant "How do you say..." with ... being a word in a different language. Am I right that it is proper to use it this way? - kdrinning, Feb 21, 2012

¡Muy bien, Ciscocaja! Las opciones de Goldi y de Xocoyote también son muy buenas :) - Cordobesa, Feb 22, 2012

@ kdrin: I don't know. I've never seen it used like that. "Cómo se dice ...?" is the only way I've seen it said. - Goldie_Miel, Feb 22, 2012

Answer 2

Another way: ¿Cuál es el significado del nombre "Quetzalcoatl"? where el significado = "the meaning"

Answer 3

In English, people often say "What I mean is..."

Such as "I'm worried. What I mean is that I hope I don´t fail."

In that case, you would say "Quiero decir" in the "mean" part.