- Google and Apple have updated the name of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America for US users.
- President Donald Trump signed an executive order mandating the change to “honor American greatness.”
- Users will see their local name when it varies between countries; everyone else sees both names.
Apple Maps has followed Google Maps in updating the Gulf of Mexico’s name for US-based users following an executive order issued by President Donald Trump last month.
As of Monday night, when users in the US search for “Gulf of Mexico” in Google Maps, they are presented with a result for “Gulf of America.” As of Tuesday evening, the same change occurred in Apple Maps.
For people outside the US, the results populate as “Gulf of Mexico (Gulf of America).”
The president signed an executive order on his first day in office to rename the Gulf of Mexico the Gulf of America and to change the name of the highest mountain peak in North America from Denali to Mount McKinley. As of press time, the name “Denali” had not yet been changed on Google Maps or Apple Maps.
The change in Google Maps was expected. Google said last month that it had “a longstanding practice of applying name changes when they have been updated in official government sources.”
The company said it would update Maps in the US after the Geographic Names Information System made the changes. The GNIS, a database of more than 2 million physical and cultural features throughout the US and its territories, standardizes geographic names for federal use.
Trump’s executive order gave the secretary of the interior 30 days to implement the name changes and update the GNIS to reflect them.
In 2015, then-President Barack Obama changed the name of the mountain peak from Mount McKinley to Denali in honor of local Native groups’ names for the Alaskan mountain.
Trump’s order said that the surrounding national park area would keep the name Denali National Park and Preserve and that the secretary of the interior “shall work with Alaska Native entities and state and local organizations to adopt names for landmarks to honor the history and culture of the Alaskan people.”
The renaming at the federal level has been a complex undertaking for government agencies and offices.
Historically, the Board on Geographic Names and the US Geological Survey would act immediately to update the GNIS. The Department of State would update the Geographic Names Server, which defines names of geographic features outside the US. But it’s up to each agency and office to update their own websites accordingly.
Outside the US, other countries may not recognize the name changes.
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said last month that “for us and for the whole world, it is still the Gulf of Mexico.”
Google previously said that when official names vary between countries, Maps users will see the official name used in their country, while the rest of the world will see both names. The company said this was consistent with long-standing policy.
Google and Apple did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
