Google Maps Changes ‘Lake Ontario’ to ‘Lake America’ for U.S. Users
Time · LC · trust 52/100
U.S. users looking for Lake Ontario on Google Maps will now find “Lake America” in its place, after President Donald Trump’s executive order to rename the lake amid an escalating trade stoush .
Google announced on Saturday that the lake, which borders the Canadian province of Ontario and the U.S. state of New York, will appear as “Lake America” in the U.S., “Lake Ontario” in Canada, and “Lake Ontario (Lake America)” for users in the rest of the world.
The company said it changed the maps following the formal renaming by the U.S. Geographic Names Information System (GNIS), and that the update is in line with its “long-standing policy for bodies of water with names that vary from country to country.”
MapQuest, the first commercial web mapping service, said in a Thursday post , “We’re not changing the name of Lake Ontario. Name it whatever you want at your leisure.” The post included a link to a satirical tool allowing users to give the lake a name of their choosing and an image of a parody map labeling the body of water, “Lake Are We Doing This Again?”
As of Sunday, Apple had not changed the name on Apple Maps.
The change comes after Trump signed an executive order on Thursday to officially rename the body of water —the latest salvo in an escalating trade war with Canada. After trade talks abruptly collapsed earlier this month, the U.S. and Canada announced tit-for-tat tariffs of up to 50% on some goods. Canadian officials also called for Canadians to boycott U.S. travel and products, while Trump revived rhetoric of Canada being the “51st state” of the U.S., claiming that Canada wanted “the benefits of being a State, without being one.”
The name change has faced significant opposition from Democrats. Rep. Debbie Dingell (D, Mich.) announced plans to introduce the “Hands Off Our Great Lakes Act,” a bill that would reverse Trump’s order renaming the lake. Other Democratic lawmakers reportedly said they were preparing legislation to counter the name change.
Canadian officials also derided the name change. Prime Minister Mark Carney rejected the renaming on Thursday, noting that Canadians will continue “calling it Lake Ontario—then, now and always.”
On Saturday, Ontario Premier Doug Ford unveiled a newly erected 24-by-12-foot sign overlooking the lake in Winona, Ontario, that read “Lake Ontario Now and Always” in English and French.
Ford told ABC on Sunday that the name change is “like something out of ‘Saturday Night Live.’”
“No one’s going to call it Lake of America. It’s been Lake Ontario for hundreds of years. It’s going to continue being Lake Ontario. It’s just so disappointing,” he said.
Some Ontario government and business websites that use data from Google Maps showed “Lake America” after the change. A Google spokesperson told Axios that website developers embedding Google Maps can select a region to localize their maps.
“Following recent changes by Google, we’re actively reviewing our websites to make sure they all identify Lake Ontario by its correct name: Lake Ontario,” Stephen Crawford, Ontario’s minister of public and business service delivery and procurement, posted . “As Ontarians, we will always stand up for our province, our identity and the places that define it.”
Google made a similar change in February 2025 after Trump issued an executive order renaming the Gulf of Mexico the “Gulf of America.” Google began displaying “Gulf of America” to Google Maps users in the U.S. after the name change was made in the U.S. federal geographic database. Users in Mexico continued to see “Gulf of Mexico” and users elsewhere saw both names.
Soon after, Apple Maps adopted the new name for U.S. users.
Mexico filed a lawsuit against Google in May 2025, arguing that the U.S. did not have the authority to rename the entire gulf, including waters under Mexican jurisdiction. The suit followed Google’s refusal to limit the “Gulf of America” label to the portion of the gulf under U.S. jurisdiction, as Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum had requested. The lawsuit remains pending before the Superior Court of Justice of Mexico City.
Both Google and Apple also changed their U.S. map labels for North America’s highest peak from Denali to Mount McKinley last February. Trump had directed the name change in the same executive order, reversing a 2015 decision that had restored Denali, the mountain’s Alaska Native name, as its federal designation.
MapQuest retained the names of Denali and the Gulf of Mexico, and also offered users the option to rename the gulf as they pleased.
Read the original at Time →
Open in TruthVane →