An article from mySA about how Texas may have gotten its name. An excerpt:
Later, when Spanish soldiers encountered the Caddos around 1689, the American Indians greeted them with the word “techas,” meaning “friendly,” a word that evolved into “Tejas” — Texas. One tribe that lived along the Texas coast was known as the Karankawas. They were the first to greet Cabeza de Vaca and his Spanish soldiers in 1528.