Topline
Google Maps will display the name “Gulf of America” instead of the “Gulf of Mexico” for U.S. users once official government sources are updated to reflect the name change ordered by President Donald Trump last week—the tech giant announced Tuesday, in a move that aligns with the company’s policies on handling disputed names for geographical features.
Google Maps will be updated to display the name “Gulf of America” instead of the “Gulf of Mexico.”
Key Facts
The company said it has a “longstanding practice” of applying name changes when they have been “updated in official government sources,” and for the U.S. that would be the names displayed by the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS).
The company said once the GNIS is updated to show the “Gulf of America” instead of the “Gulf of Mexico” and “Mount McKinley” instead of “Mount Denali”, Google Maps will reflect the changes.
Google said this aligns with its “longstanding practice” of showing the official local name of a geographical feature “when official names vary between countries.”
This means U.S. Google Maps users will see the name “Gulf of America” while users from Mexico will see the “Gulf of Mexico.”
Users from the rest of the world will see both names appear on the map.
This is a developing story.