Google Maps will change the name of “Gulf of Mexico” to “Gulf of America” once it is officially updated in the Geographical Name System of the United States (GNI), Google said in an X post on Monday.
“We have a long practice to apply name changes when they have been updated in official government sources,” a spokesman for the search and technology giant said on Monday.
Google said the changes are aligned with their policy of following the official geographical designations of the United States government through the GNI and will enter into force once the GNI is updated.
The change will be visible in the United States, but the name will remain “Gulf of Mexico” in Mexico. Outside the two countries, users will see both names on Google Maps.
The interior department of the Trump administration said Friday that the name of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America, and the Peak of Alaska Denali, the highest mountain in North America, to Mount McKinley, said officially.
“As directed by the president, the Gulf of Mexico will now be officially known as the Gulf of America and the highest peak in North America will be named again of Mount McKinley,” said the Interior Department in a statement the week the week pass.
Google Maps, owned by Google by Alphabet, will make a similar change with Mount McKinley.
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.
The first change reverts the decision of then President Barack Obama to officially recognize Denali, the name used by Alaska natives for centuries for the highest peak in North America.
The second order renowned the Gulf of Mexico to the “Gulf of America”, with the Executive Order that cites its importance for the production of oil, fishing and tourism of the United States.
The United States Coast Guard soon used the term Gulf of America in a press release to enforce Trump’s new repression against migrants, as well as by the Republican governor of Florida, Ron Desantis, when talking about a storm of winter.
The movements have caused criticism of indigenous groups in Alaska, who have advised for a long time to keep the name of Denali and raised diplomatic concerns with Mexico.
Mexican president Claudia Sheinbaum earlier this month suggested jokingly North America, including the United States, will rename “Mexican America”, a historical name used on an early map of the region.
Contact to comment, a Google spokesman referred to Reuters to the company’s x publication.
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 (oriental sea)”.
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 body of the water is now labeled as “Persian Gulf (Arabic Gulf)” in other countries.
