Culture and Society
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Search giant Google has announced that two locations on Google Maps will soon look different for users in the USA after President Donald Trump ordered they be officially renamed.
During Trump's inauguration, he announced his intention to rename the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America. “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,” he said at the inauguration, per AP. “A short time from now, we are going to be changing the name of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America.”
As well as this, he announced that he wanted to change the name of the highest mountain peak in North America to Mount McKinley, reversing the 2015 decision to revert the name to Denali.
Both these moves remain controversial, with no other countries in the world appearing to be planning on referring to the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America anytime soon. For her part, Mexico's president Claudia Sheinbaum joked that Mexico would retaliate and begin calling North America "América Mexicana" or "Mexican America".
While many appear to not be taking the name change that seriously, Google is, announcing that it will rename the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America for users of Google Maps in the USA when the names are officially changed.
"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," the tech giant announced on X.
"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."
Elsewhere, the Gulf of Mexico will continue to be referred to by that name, which it has had since the late 16th century. The same is true of Denali, officially named "Mount McKinley" in 1917, which was renamed in 2015 to “reflect the heritage of Alaska Natives" – Denali meaning “Great One” in the language of the Koyukon Alaska Native people.
While they were criticized by some for the announcement, Google clarified that "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."
