Google said it would change the name of the Gulf of Mexico to the “Gulf of America” for its Google Maps users in the United States to stay in line with President Donald Trump’s executive order making the switch.
Upon being sworn into office last week, Trump issued a slew of executive orders, including changing the name of the body of water that will be acknowledged by federal agencies. Google said its maps will update when the Geographic Names Information System, a government database of names and location data, makes the change.
“We’ve received a few questions about naming within Google Maps,” the company said in a social media post. “We have a longstanding practice of applying name changes when they have been updated in official government sources.”
Google also said it would start using the name “Mount McKinley” for the mountain in Alaska currently called Denali. The mountain was named Mount McKinley until 2015, when then-President Barack Obama’s administration changed it to “Denali” as a symbolic gesture to Alaska Natives. At the time, Google updated its maps to reflect the name change three days after the Obama administration’s decision.
Google said only users in the U.S. will see the change, adding that the name “Gulf of Mexico” will remain displayed for users in Mexico and that users in other countries will see both names.
The “Gulf of Mexico” has been used by European explorers and mapmakers for at least 400 years. Trump said at a news conference earlier this month that the change is to “a beautiful name, and it’s appropriate.”
Sens. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) and Dan Sullivan (R-AK) pushed back on Trump’s order to rename the mountain and have said they wish to keep Denali National Park and Preserve as is it stands.
“I prefer the name Denali that was given to that great mountain by the great patriotic Koyukon Athabascan people thousands of years ago,” Sullivan said.
“You can’t improve upon the name that Alaska’s Koyukon Athabascans bestowed on North America’s tallest peak, Denali: the Great One,” Murkowski said. “For years, I advocated in Congress to restore the rightful name for this majestic mountain to respect Alaska’s first people who have lived on these lands for thousands of years. This is an issue that should not be relitigated.”
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Trump, in his executive order renaming the mountain, said, “It is in the national interest to promote the extraordinary heritage of our Nation and ensure future generations of American citizens celebrate the legacy of our American heroes.”
Google Maps has routinely used different names to refer to the same locations, depending on a user’s location, if there is a geopolitical dispute. For example, the body of water between Saudi Arabia and Iran has been subject to naming disputes for decades. There, Google labels the gulf for international users as “Persian Gulf (Arabian Gulf),” and in Arab countries near the body of water, Google Maps calls it the “Arabian Gulf.”
