Google Renames ‘Gulf of Mexico’ to ‘Gulf of America’ for U.S. Users Following Trump’s Executive Order

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Google Maps has officially named the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America for users in the United States.

This comes in line with an executive order by former US President Donald Trump that saw the updating of the designation by GNIS, or the Geographic Names Information System-the country’s federal database responsible for place names.

Now, American users see Gulf of America on Google Maps while users in Mexico continue to see the long-standing name, Gulf of Mexico. For the rest of the world, both names appear together.

Google’s Response to the Name Change
The change was expected, since Google has a general policy of using official government sources to determine what its mapping services show. Indeed, the company had said in the past that it would update Google Maps after the GNIS changed the name.

The GNIS, responsible for a database of more than 2 million geographic and cultural features in the U.S. and its territories, is crucial to standardizing place names for federal use.

Mount Denali to Be Renamed Mount McKinley
In the same announcement on X (formerly Twitter), Google revealed plans to revert Mount Denali’s name back to Mount McKinley in accordance with Trump’s executive order—once the GNIS updates its records.

Mount Denali was originally named by the Indigenous Koyukon Athabascan people. In 1917, however, the U.S. government officially named it Mount McKinley after President William McKinley, who was assassinated in 1901.

In 2015, while president, Barack Obama restored the mountain’s Indigenous name just before a visit to Alaska.

Trump’s Executive Order Mandated Name Changes
Trump’s executive order called for the Secretary of the Interior to make the name changes within 30 days and revise the GNIS accordingly.

This decision continues to stir debate over geographic naming conventions and political influence on place names.