Google Maps to Alter Names of Denali and Gulf of Mexico After Trump Executive Order
Google is set to update Google Maps in the U.S. to reflect President Donald Trump‘s executive order to rename the Gulf of Mexico the Gulf of America, and use Denali’s now-official name of Mount McKinley.
In a thread posted on X, Google explained the proposed changes to Maps that are driven by official changes to the U.S. government’s Geographic Names Information System, a database of name and location information.
“We’ve received a few questions about naming within Google Maps,” Google tweeted on Monday. “We have a longstanding practice of applying name changes when they have been updated in official government sources. For geographic features in the U.S., this is when Geographic Names Information System (GNIS) is updated. When that happens, we will update Google Maps in the U.S. quickly to show Mount McKinley and Gulf of America.”
The company added, “Also, longstanding practice: When official names vary between countries, Maps users see their official local name. Everyone in the rest of the world sees both names. That applies here too.”
On Jan. 20, Trump signed an executive order requiring the Interior Department to rename the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America and also revert the Obama-era name change of Denali back to Mount McKinley in all official maps and communications from the U.S. federal government.
