The term mariachi is of uncertain origin, but it is believed that it is a coca word with which, in Nueva Galicia, the indigenous people of Techaluta named a wooden platform on which they perform their dances or zapateados.

There are those who affirm that the name derives from a tree - today unknown - with whose wood said planks were built.

Another version indicates that mariachi is a mestizo word formed by the Spanish María and coca shi, son, and refers to the letters (in honor of María) and music (sones) that the inhabitants of Cocula create to worship the Virgin of la Pila ( the Immaculate Conception), brought to such territory by Fray Miguel de Bolonia in 1528.

A third version indicates that mariachi comes from the French marriage, marriage, which, during the so-called War of the Cakes (1838-1839) was the way in which the French designated not only weddings in Mexico, but also the music of these celebrations.