Google announces to rename ‘Gulf of Mexico’ following Trump’s order

Google announced on Tuesday that it would rename the Gulf of Mexico to the “Gulf of America” on its Maps app, complying with executive orders from U.S. President Donald Trump.

“We have a longstanding practice of applying name changes when they have been updated in official government sources,” a spokesman for the search and tech giant said on Monday.

Google said the changes align with its policy of following official U.S. government geographic designations through the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS), and will come into effect once the GNIS is updated.

Trump’s ‘Gulf of America’ order

Trump signed executive orders changing the names of Denali and the Gulf of Mexico soon after his Jan. 20 swearing-in as president.

The first change reverses then-president Barack Obama’s 2015 decision to officially recognize Denali, the name used by Alaska Natives for centuries for North America’s highest peak. The second order renames the Gulf of Mexico to the “Gulf of America,” with the executive order citing its importance to U.S. oil production, fishing and tourism.

The term Gulf of America was soon used by the U.S. Coast Guard in a press release on enforcing Trump’s new crackdown on migrants, as well as by Florida’s Republican governor, Ron DeSantis when discussing a winter storm.

The moves have sparked criticism from Indigenous groups in Alaska, who have long advocated for maintaining the Denali name and raised diplomatic concerns with Mexico.

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum has cheekily suggested calling the United States “Mexican America,” pointing to a map from before one-third of her country was seized by the United States in 1848.

Google noted that users outside the United States will continue to see both the original and new names of the Gulf of Mexico and Denali, as is always the case for disputed locations.