Google Maps has officially changed the name of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America, following an executive order by US President Donald Trump, TechCrunch journalists noticed the matter.
Since the afternoon of Monday, February 10, Google Maps users in the United States have been seeing the new name - the Gulf of Mexico. And in Mexico, users continue to see the old name, the Gulf of Mexico. This is the most common name for the Gulf since the XXI century.
As for people from other countries, they will now see both versions. Namely, the Gulf of Mexico (Gulf of America).
- Donald Trump issued an executive order to rename the Gulf on the day of his inauguration, and he also reversed the Obama-era decision to rename Mount McKinley to Denali, as it has been called by indigenous people for centuries. On February 8, Alaskan officials passed a resolution urging Trump to keep the name of North America's highest peak.
- The President of Mexico Claudia Sheinbaum said she would send a letter to Google questioning the decision. But if you go into the details, it is in line with the company's policy to change geographic names in the country in accordance with official government sources.
- The name of the Gulf of Mexico has already been changed in the US Geographic Names Information System, so it has already been replaced on Google Maps. As for the mountain, Mashable writes that the old name has not yet been changed because it has not been changed in the system either.
The name of Mount Denali from a computer and phone when searching in Google Maps from Ukraine. Screenshot: AIN.UA
Apple Maps still uses the old names. Searching for the Gulf of America on this map of the United States returned no results.
Previously, Google had reclassified the United States as a "sensitive country." The company explained that this status means that it applies a special approach to place names in certain countries.
In the case of the Gulf of America, this decision is similar to the situation with the Persian Gulf, which Google Maps calls the Arabian Gulf in Arab countries. In 2019, Google Maps did the same with the Ukrainian Crimea.
