Washington DC:
The “Gulf of Mexico” will be shown as the “Gulf de América” for Google Maps users in the United States after the name change ordered by the Trump administration is officially updated in the federal mapping database , the company owned by the alphabet on Monday announced Monday.
The measure complies with an executive order issued by President Donald Trump last week that changed the names of several US reference points. After the order, the US Department of the United States said the name changes were official and that the United States geographical name system was “issuing” to comply with the president’s order.
“We have a long practice to apply name changes when they have been updated in official government sources,” Google wrote in an X publication.
We have received some questions about names within Google Maps. We have a long time practice to apply name changes when they have been updated in official government sources.
– Google news (@Newsfromgoogle) January 27, 2025
According to reports, the new name will be visible to Google Maps users in the United States, but the name will continue to be “Gulf of Mexico” in Mexico. Outside the two countries, users will see both names on Google Maps.
Trump Renaming
According to the Department of the Interior, the name of the Gulf of Mexico has officially changed to the Gulf of America, and the Peak Denali de Alaska, the highest mountain in North America, has become called Monte McKinley.
Google Maps, owned by Google by Alphabet, will make a similar change with Mount McKinley. The Alaska mountain was appointed Mount McKinley in 1917 to honor the 25th president of the United States, William McKinley, however, was called Denali during the Obama administration in 2015.
President Donald Trump ordered the name changes as part of a burst of executive actions hours after assuming the position on January 20, fulfilling a campaign promise.
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum earlier this month suggested jokingly North America, including the United States, becoming called “Mexican America”, a historical name used on an early map of the region.
Google name policy
Google has applied the same labeling conventions based on premises to other locations subject to name disputes. Out of Japan and South Korea, the body of water that borders both nations appears as the “sea of Japan (sea east)”.
In 2012, Iran threatened to take legal actions against Google for its decision to leave the term “Persian Gulf” of its Google maps and leave the river route between Iran and the Arab Peninsula without a name. The water body is now labeled as “Persian Gulf (Arabic Gulf)” in other countries.