Rich Stanton
PCGAMER
Fri, January 31, 2025
Credit: kdow via Getty Images
It is one of life's truisms that, whenever you see something and think "this couldn't possibly get any dumber", it will then proceed to astound and amaze you with just how god damn dumb it can get. Today's exhibit A is US President Donald Trump's idea that the Gulf of Mexico, an enormous body of water that borders Cuba, Mexico and the United States, be re-named as the Gulf of America: And signed an executive order in his first week in office to this effect. Priorities, people, priorities!
If you're looking for an actual reason as to why Trump wants to do this, I suggest looking up the theme song of Team America: World Police. "America will reclaim its rightful place as the greatest, most powerful, most respected nation on Earth, inspiring the awe and admiration of the entire world," Trump said in his inaugural address on January 20. "A short time from now, we are going to be changing the name of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America."
This has somewhat inadvertently become a tech story after poor old Google Maps got caught right in the middle. The name change for the Gulf of Mexico and Mount Denali (another Trump bugbear, he's renamed it Mount McKinley) will be applied once its Geographic Names Information System (GNIS) is updated:
"When official names vary between countries, Maps users see their official local name," says Google. "Everyone in the rest of the world sees both names. That applies here too."
Mexico has decided it's had quite enough of this, and now Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum has written to Google asking that the firm reconsider its decision to rename the Gulf of Mexico in Google Maps. She argues that the US cannot legally change the entire basin's name because the UN convention on the Law of the Sea says a country's sovereign territory only extends 12 nautical miles out.
"[The name change] could only correspond to the 12 nautical miles away from the coastlines of the United States of America," said Sheinbaum at a press conference showing the letter. "It cannot apply to the rest, in this case, the Gulf of Mexico. This is what we explained in detail to Google."
Sheinbaum has previously said Google should not respond to "the mandate of a country" over re-naming "an international sea" and then clearly decided that, if everyone else was clowning around, she may as well join in. "By the way, we are also going to ask for Mexican America to appear on the map," Sheinbaum joked, referring to her suggestion that North America become known as "América Mexicana."
My suspicion is that the Gulf of Mexico is going to remain just that for the majority of the world's population, while the Gulf of America will be a short-lived cause celebre that everyone forgets about in a few years except historians and Wikipedia editors. I'm not going to get into the entire history of this minor ocean's name, other than to note that it's first called the Gulf of Mexico in a map dated 1550 and a written account of 1552. There have been other names over time (though "Gulf of America" is notably absent) but, since the 17th century, the Gulf of Mexico has been by far the most common name.
But you can never say never with someone like Trump, and he does seem to have a weirdly determined interest in this rather nationalistic little play.
"For us it is still the Gulf of Mexico," says Sheinbaum. "And for the entire world it is still the Gulf of Mexico." As for Google Maps… sometimes, the only winning move is not to play.
Mexico isn't happy with Google Maps' decision to rename the Gulf of Mexico
Fri, January 31, 2025
Credit: kdow via Getty Images
It is one of life's truisms that, whenever you see something and think "this couldn't possibly get any dumber", it will then proceed to astound and amaze you with just how god damn dumb it can get. Today's exhibit A is US President Donald Trump's idea that the Gulf of Mexico, an enormous body of water that borders Cuba, Mexico and the United States, be re-named as the Gulf of America: And signed an executive order in his first week in office to this effect. Priorities, people, priorities!
If you're looking for an actual reason as to why Trump wants to do this, I suggest looking up the theme song of Team America: World Police. "America will reclaim its rightful place as the greatest, most powerful, most respected nation on Earth, inspiring the awe and admiration of the entire world," Trump said in his inaugural address on January 20. "A short time from now, we are going to be changing the name of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America."
This has somewhat inadvertently become a tech story after poor old Google Maps got caught right in the middle. The name change for the Gulf of Mexico and Mount Denali (another Trump bugbear, he's renamed it Mount McKinley) will be applied once its Geographic Names Information System (GNIS) is updated:
"When official names vary between countries, Maps users see their official local name," says Google. "Everyone in the rest of the world sees both names. That applies here too."
Mexico has decided it's had quite enough of this, and now Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum has written to Google asking that the firm reconsider its decision to rename the Gulf of Mexico in Google Maps. She argues that the US cannot legally change the entire basin's name because the UN convention on the Law of the Sea says a country's sovereign territory only extends 12 nautical miles out.
"[The name change] could only correspond to the 12 nautical miles away from the coastlines of the United States of America," said Sheinbaum at a press conference showing the letter. "It cannot apply to the rest, in this case, the Gulf of Mexico. This is what we explained in detail to Google."
Sheinbaum has previously said Google should not respond to "the mandate of a country" over re-naming "an international sea" and then clearly decided that, if everyone else was clowning around, she may as well join in. "By the way, we are also going to ask for Mexican America to appear on the map," Sheinbaum joked, referring to her suggestion that North America become known as "América Mexicana."
My suspicion is that the Gulf of Mexico is going to remain just that for the majority of the world's population, while the Gulf of America will be a short-lived cause celebre that everyone forgets about in a few years except historians and Wikipedia editors. I'm not going to get into the entire history of this minor ocean's name, other than to note that it's first called the Gulf of Mexico in a map dated 1550 and a written account of 1552. There have been other names over time (though "Gulf of America" is notably absent) but, since the 17th century, the Gulf of Mexico has been by far the most common name.
But you can never say never with someone like Trump, and he does seem to have a weirdly determined interest in this rather nationalistic little play.
"For us it is still the Gulf of Mexico," says Sheinbaum. "And for the entire world it is still the Gulf of Mexico." As for Google Maps… sometimes, the only winning move is not to play.
Mexico isn't happy with Google Maps' decision to rename the Gulf of Mexico
Will Sattelberg
Fri, January 31, 2025
Google Maps on a Galaxy S25 Ultra showing the Gulf of Mexico
Mexico's president challenged Google's decision to recognize Trump's renaming of the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America.
Mexico doesn't believe the US has the ability to rename bodies of water outside its jurisdiction, and therefore, Google's actions are incorrect.
Google has yet to officially update the names on Google Maps, as it's waiting for an update to the US Geographic Names System.
Not even two weeks into the second Trump administration, Google has found itself stuck in a tiff between neighboring countries. After the Maps team announced its intentions to rename the Gulf of Mexico and Denali to the Gulf of America and Mount McKinley, respectively, Mexico is pushing back. In a letter addressed to Google, Mexico's president is claiming the Maps team is incorrect to rename the Gulf of Mexico for any user, regardless of where they're physically located.
In a letter issued on Thursday, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum claimed Trump's decision to unilaterally rename the Gulf of Mexico violated the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, and therefore, Google's decision to follow the name change is incorrect. As reported by Reuters, Sheinbaum went a step further, pushing Google to deliver search results for the 17th-century "Mexican America" map displayed in an earlier press conference whenever searching for "Mexican America" (via Android Authority).
At the core of Sheinbaum's case is the UN treaty, which states the US cannot rename any specific body of water lying outside of its jurisdiction because every individual country's sovereign territory ends 12 nautical miles off the coast. In other words, Trump is free to rename the coastline extending outside of the continental US, but the body of water remains the "Gulf of Mexico."
Google Maps hasn't made its changes official just yet
But they're still presumably on their way
Google has yet to roll this change out to end users; it's waiting on the US Geographic Names System to officially update both the Gulf of Mexico and Denali with Trump's new (or, in Denali's case, old) names. In the case of the Gulf of Mexico in particular, it'll only appear to those located within the US as the "Gulf of America." Google Maps users based in Mexico will still see the Gulf of Mexico, while those outside both of these verbally-sparring nations will see both names.
It'll likely take a court ruling or a similar action from on high to change Trump's mind on this subject, but Google doesn't necessarily need to stick with its initial decision. The Apple Maps team — Google's biggest rival, at least on iPhones and other iOS devices — have remained silent on their decision to rename the body of water. Currently, searching for the "Gulf of America" brings up no matching results, though that's technically the case with Google Maps at this moment as well. Both services recognize Denali and Mount McKinley, though only Google manually changes "Mount McKinley" back to Denali at this moment.
Google says Gulf of Mexico will change to Gulf of America in Maps app: Here's how
Gabe Hauari, Elizabeth Weise and Trevor Hughes, USA TODAY
Sat, February 1, 2025
President Donald Trump signed an executive order last week requiring the federal government to change the name of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America on official maps, a move that could take months to enact.
But Google is readying for the change.
The tech giant said on social media Monday it will apply the name change when it has been updated in official government sources. The company also said it will start using the name Mount McKinley to refer to the mountain in Alaska currently called Denali, another renaming decision from Trump.
Here's what we know so far.
How does Google Maps make changes?
"We've received a few questions about naming within Google Maps," the company said on X 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," the company said. "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," Google said. "Everyone in the rest of the world sees both names. That applies here too."
How long has it been called the Gulf of Mexico?
The Gulf of Mexico has been so named at least since the late 1600s, when it was used to describe the body of water that's bordered to the north by the United States' southern coast, from Texas to Florida. It also wraps around Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula.
It is the ninth largest body of water in the world, according to the National Parks Service.
Roughly the size of Alaska, it covers more than 615,000 square miles and is almost a thousand miles wide east to west and 660 miles wide north to south.
The Gulf's shoreline is about 3,540 miles ‒ more than half of it bordering Mexico's coast, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, although that does not account for the myriad bays and inlets.
Who is in charge of renaming geographical places?
Renaming geographical place names is the work the U.S. Board on Geographic Names. The federal office has the power to rename geographic places within the United States.
"The BGN is responsible by law for standardizing geographic names throughout the federal government and discourages name changes unless there is a compelling reason," the Board of Geographic Names says on its website. "Further, changing an existing name merely to correct or re-establish historical usage should not be a primary reason to change a name."
Those changes would not necessarily be binding on the states bordering the gulf or for other countries. But at least one state has already embraced it.
In a state of emergency declaration last Tuesday about cold weather there, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis said, "Whereas an area of low pressure moving across the Gulf of America, interacting with Arctic air, will bring widespread impactful weather to North Florida beginning Tuesday."
Gabe Hauari is a national trending news reporter at USA TODAY. You can follow him on X @GabeHauari or email him at Gdhauari@gannett.com.
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