Google Will Follow Trump Directive and Rename ‘Gulf of Mexico’ to ‘Gulf of America’

Google Maps & Greg Nash/Pool/The Hill via AP Images

Google announced on Monday that it would follow President Donald Trump’s directive and rename the Gulf of Mexico to “Gulf of America,” as soon as the change is officially implemented.

“We’ve received a few questions about naming within Google Maps,” said Google in a series of social media posts:

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. 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.

Following his inauguration last week, Trump signed an executive order directing the secretary of the interior to rename the Gulf of Mexico to Gulf of America, and Alaska’s Denali to Mount McKinley.

The Alaskan mountain was previously known as Mount McKinley – named after 25th U.S. President William McKinley – until 2015, when it was changed by the Obama administration to the native name Denali.

“In 1917, the country officially honored President McKinley through the naming of North America’s highest peak. Yet after nearly a century, President Obama’s administration, in 2015, stripped the McKinley name from federal nomenclature, an affront to President McKinley’s life, his achievements, and his sacrifice,” wrote Trump in his executive order. “This order honors President McKinley for giving his life for our great Nation and dutifully recognizes his historic legacy of protecting America’s interests and generating enormous wealth for all Americans.”

Last week, Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-TX) complained to Apple CEO Tim Cook that Apple Maps had not yet changed the Gulf of Mexico to Gulf of America.

However, Trump’s directive to change the names of both Denali and the Gulf of Mexico has not yet been officially implemented.

Per Trump’s executive order, the secretary of the interior has 30 days to “take all appropriate actions” to implement the changes.