Google Maps to rename ‘Gulf of Mexico’ to ‘Gulf of America’ for US users – World

Google Maps will change the name of “Gulf of Mexico” to “Gulf of America” once it is officially updated in the United States Geographic Names System (GNIS), Google said in an X post on Monday.

“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 US government geographic designations through the GNIS and will come into effect once the GNIS is updated.

The change will be visible in the US but the name will remain “Gulf of Mexico” in Mexico. Outside of the two countries, users will see both names on Google Maps.

The Trump administration’s Interior Department said on Friday it had officially changed the name of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America, and the Alaskan peak Denali, the tallest mountain in North America, to Mount McKinley.

“As directed by the president, the Gulf of Mexico will now officially be known as the Gulf of America and North America’s highest peak will once again bear the name Mount McKinley,” the Interior Department said in a statement last week.

Google Maps, which is owned by Alphabet’s Google, will make a similar change with Mount McKinley.

President Donald Trump ordered the name changes as part of a flurry of executive actions hours after taking office on January 20, making good on a campaign promise.

The first change reverses then-president Barack Obama’s 2015 decision to officially recognise 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 US oil production, fishing and tourism.

The term Gulf of America was soon used by the US 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 earlier this month jokingly suggested North America, including the US, be renamed “Mexican America” — a historic name used on an early map of the region.

Reached for comment, a Google spokesperson referred Reuters to the company’s X post.

Google has applied the same locale-based labelling conventions to other locations subject to naming disputes.

Outside of Japan and South Korea, the body of water bordering both nations is listed as the “Sea of Japan (East Sea)”.

In 2012, Iran threatened to take legal action against Google over its decision to drop the term “Persian Gulf” from its Google Maps and leave the waterway between Iran and the Arabian peninsula nameless.

The body of water is now labelled “Persian Gulf (Arabian Gulf)” in other countries.