The Gulf of Mexico is now called the Gulf of America for Google Maps users in the United States, keeping with the terms of President Trump’s controversial executive order to rename the body of water.
Google made the change starting Monday. It followed an updated site listing for the Gulf in the Geographic Names Information System, a government database run by the Interior Department that includes descriptions and location information for more than a million places in U.S. territory.
The system’s new description for the Gulf, an ocean basin that shares nearly equal lengths of shoreline with the U.S. and Mexico, reads: “The Gulf of America, formerly known as the Gulf of Mexico, with an average depth 5300 ft is a major body of water bordered and nearly landlocked by North America with the Gulf’s eastern, northern, and northwestern shores in the U.S. and its southwestern and southern shores in Mexico.”
The description notes that the change complies with Mr. Trump’s order titled “Restoring Names That Honor American Greatness,” which he signed on Inauguration Day. Google previously acknowledged Mr. Trump’s executive order would affect what U.S. users see in their Maps applications but said the company would take its cue from the Board on Geographic Names, which handles federal nomenclature, to act on the directive.
Although people accessing Google Maps from inside the U.S. will see the name Gulf of America, users in Mexico will continue to see the basin’s earlier title. Maps users everywhere else in the world will see both names, Google said.
“The names you see in the Maps app are based on your country location, which is determined by information from your phone’s operating system (e.g., iOS and Android), including your SIM, network, and locale,” Google said in a statement Monday explaining the name change. “If you’re using Google Maps on the web, the names are based on the region you select in your Search settings or your device’s location, if you haven’t selected one.”
The Interior Department announced the Gulf of Mexico had been formally renamed the Gulf of America during Mr. Trump’s first week in office. In another change called for by the same executive order, Denali, a mountain in Alaska and North America’s tallest peak, was renamed Mount McKinley after a slain president, for the second time in history, the department said. Denali is the traditional Alaskan Native name for the mountain. As of Tuesday, it had not been updated in the Geographic Names Information System or in Google Maps.
