Google on Monday announced that it will change the name of Gulf of Mexico to ‘Gulf of America’ after it is officially updated on the US Geographic Names System. While the name change will be visible to the US users, Maps users in Mexico would continue to see the name ‘Gulf of Mexico’ in Mexico. Users outside both the countries will see both names on the website.
“We’ve received a few questions about naming within Google Maps. We have a longstanding practice of applying name changes when they have been updated in official government sources.” Google wrote in a post on X.
Notably, President Donald Trump had signed an executive order soon after his oath taking ceremony, changing the name of Gulf of Mexico to Gulf of America and restore the name of Mount Denali 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,” US Interior department had said in a statement last week.
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum earlier this month jokingly suggested North America, including the United States, be renamed “Mexican America” – a historic name used on an early map of the region.
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 labeled “Persian Gulf (Arabian Gulf)” in other countries.
