Google Officially Renames ‘Gulf of Mexico’ to ‘Gulf of America’ for US Users After Trump’s Executive Order

The name of the Gulf of Mexico has officially been changed to the Gulf of America on Google Maps for users in the United States.

This update follows an executive order signed by former U.S. President Donald Trump, prompting the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS), the federal database for place names, to implement the change.

Now, U.S. users see “Gulf of America” on Google Maps, while users in Mexico continue to see “Gulf of Mexico.” For the rest of the world, both names are displayed side by side.

The change in Google Maps was expected. Google said earlier that it had “a longstanding practice of applying name changes when they have been updated in official government sources.”

Google stated that it would update Maps in the U.S. following changes made by the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS). The GNIS, a database cataloging over two million physical and cultural features across the U.S. and its territories, standardizes geographic names for federal use.

In the same announcement on X, Google mentioned plans to rename Mount Denali in Alaska back to Mount McKinley—after former U.S. President William McKinley—once the official database is updated per Trump’s executive order.

Mount Denali, the tallest peak in North America, was originally named by the Indigenous Koyukon Athabascan people. The U.S. government changed its name to Mount McKinley in 1917 in honor of the late Republican president, who was assassinated in 1901.

However, in 2015, the Obama administration reinstated the Indigenous name ahead of a presidential visit to Alaska.

Trump’s order directed the Secretary of the Interior to implement these name changes within 30 days and update the GNIS accordingly.