Google Maps and Apple Maps have officially updated their platforms to reflect the recent renaming of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America, a change that began appearing for U.S. users this week. This move was made in response to President Donald Trump’s executive
order issued on Jan. 20 that directed the name change.
According to a Google blog
post on Feb. 10, the company started implementing the name change following the official update of the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS) late on Feb. 10. Apple followed suit on Feb. 11, making the change after the GNIS update became official.
Google said that this action aligns with its “longstanding practices” of applying name changes when they are updated in official government sources. The name change on Google Maps is not universal, it noted.
“People using Maps in the U.S. will see ‘Gulf of America,’ and people in Mexico will see ‘Gulf of Mexico,’” the blog post reads. “Everyone else will see both names.”
Apple has adopted a similar approach, though the company has not released a detailed statement about its implementation strategy.
In a Jan. 27
statement posted on social media platform X, Google said that using different names based on the user’s location is consistent with the company’s established policies.
“When official names vary between countries, Maps users see their official local name. Everyone in the rest of the world sees both names,” the company said.
Microsoft also made the name change on its Bing maps, aligning with other major tech companies in responding to the official GNIS update.
Trump’s executive order cited the gulf’s importance to the United States as justification for the name change. According to the White House, the order describes the gulf as “an integral asset to our once burgeoning Nation” and highlights its role in trade, oil and gas production, fisheries, and the maritime industry.
The executive order directed the secretary of the interior to “take all appropriate actions to rename as the ‘Gulf of America’ the U.S. Continental Shelf area bounded on the northeast, north, and northwest by the States of Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida and extending to the seaward boundary with Mexico and Cuba in the area formerly named as the Gulf of Mexico.”
The implementation of the change has been swift across federal agencies. The U.S. Coast Guard
began using the new name one day after the executive order was issued, referring to “the maritime border between Texas and Mexico in the Gulf of America” in its communications.
Trump has moved quickly to cement the name change, declaring Feb. 9 “the first-ever Gulf of America Day” while flying over the newly renamed body of water.
“As my Administration restores American pride in the history of American greatness, it is fitting and appropriate for our great Nation to come together and commemorate this momentous occasion and the renaming of the Gulf of America,” Trump stated in the
proclamation.
While the Gulf of America name change has been implemented, a parallel effort to change the name of Denali back to Mount McKinley through the same executive
order has faced opposition in Alaska. The Alaska Senate passed a unanimous resolution on Feb. 7 urging Trump to maintain Denali as the official name for North America’s tallest mountain.
State Rep. Maxine Dibert, who sponsored the resolution, stated in a Jan. 27 Instagram
post, “Denali is more than a mountain—it is a cornerstone of Alaska’s history, a tribute to our diverse culture, and a testament to the people who have cherished this land for millennia.”
The mountain was renamed Denali by President Barack Obama through an executive order in 2015.
