Google Maps has changed the Gulf of Mexico to America

Google has officially updated Maps to label the Gulf of Mexico as the “Gulf of America,” following U.S. President Donald Trump‘s executive order renaming the sea. Fortunately, the tech giant is also retaining the gulf’s internationally recognised name which it has held since at least 1552 — at least, for non-American users.

Late last month, Google confirmed that it would update Maps to reflect Trump’s directive, renaming the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America, as well as Denali to Mount McKinley. The tech giant stated that it was only holding off on the changes because of its “longstanding practice of applying name changes when they have been updated in official government sources.”

The relevant government source in this case is the U.S. Geographic Names Information System (GNIS), which hadn’t yet been updated with the gulf’s new American name. Trump’s executive order gave a 30-day deadline for name changes to be made, including removing all references to the Gulf of Mexico from the GNIS.

Now the GNIS has executed at least one of Trump’s name changes, labelling the Gulf of Mexico as the “Gulf of America.” As such, Google Maps has followed suit.

People within the U.S. who search Google for “Gulf of Mexico” will now be presented with bold text reading “Gulf of America” instead. Searching Google Maps for the phrase will do the same, changing the search term to “Gulf of America” and directing them to the body of water now completely relabelled “Gulf of America.”

In contrast, inputting “Gulf of Mexico” into Google from Australia results in text reading “Gulf of Mexico (Gulf of America).” Similarly, Google Maps retains the name Gulf of Mexico, but adds Gulf of America in parenthesis to both the search term and the map’s labelling. Searching “Gulf of America” does bring up the relevant sea as the first result (labelled as such with no mention of Mexico), however the map is not centered on it, and several American businesses are suggested as well.

Australian Google Search results for “Gulf of Mexico,” showing text reading “Gulf of Mexico (Gulf of America).”
Credit: Mashable screenshot / Google

Australian Google Maps results for “Gulf of Mexico,” automatically changed to “Gulf of Mexico (Gulf of America)” and with the location’s label reading as such.
Credit: Mashable screenshot / Google

Australian Google Maps results for “Gulf of America,” including the relevant gulf as well as several American businesses featuring the word “gulf.”
Credit: Mashable screenshot / Google

Last Sunday, Trump proclaimed Feb. 9 the “first ever Gulf of America Day” to commemorate his renaming of the gulf. The president further called upon “public officials and all the people of the United States to observe this day with appropriate programs, ceremonies, and activities.” It isn’t clear exactly what activities Trump might think are appropriate for this occasion, but it probably won’t be a public holiday.

Interestingly, Denali has still retained its name on Google Maps for now, rather than its new Trump-mandated label of Mount McKinley. The GNIS hasn’t changed the mountain’s name yet, so it appears that Google is still waiting for it to be official.