Google Maps will change the name of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America once it is officially updated in the US Geographic Names System, Google said in an X post on Monday.
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.
Google Maps 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 20 January, making good on a campaign promise.
“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.
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.
Persian Gulf
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)”.
Read: Trump AI gaffe has Meta scrambling
In 2012, Iran threatened to take legal action against Google over its decision to drop the term “Persian Gulf” from its Google Maps and leaving the waterway between Iran and the Arabian peninsula nameless. The body of water is now labelled “Persian Gulf (Arabian Gulf)” in other countries. — David Shepardson and Kenrick Cai, (c) 2025 Reuters
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