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Google Maps will change Gulf of ‘Mexico’ to ‘America’ in US
Google Maps will change the name of the “Gulf of Mexico” to “Gulf of America” once it’s officially updated in the U.S. Geographic Names System.
Scrolling on social media, you will find lighthearted offers to rent a house and be the first to vacation on the Gulf of America.
Someone or some entity grabbed up a piece of Facebook real estate and started a Gulf of America community group. It had just 170 followers as of Wednesday. But make no mistake about it, President Donald Trump was all business when he made an executive order to change the name of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America.
Google was quick to get on board and said Monday it’ll change the name of the Gulf of Mexico to “Gulf of America” in Google Maps. But that will just apply to users in the United States. Internationally, users will still see Gulf of Mexico.
Just how well people will adopt the name to the everyday vernacular, or if it will remain after Trump’s second term in office is complete, only time will tell.
“It’s going to be very political. It will be very representative of people’s attitudes toward President Trump,” opined Karen Schmelzkopf, a professor of geography at Monmouth University in West Long Branch.
A presidential executive order for a name change, which is what Trump signed in his first day back in office, sets in motion compulsory action. The first action is for the Department of the Interior to adopt the name change, which it did on Jan. 24 it announced that as “directed by the president, the Gulf of Mexico will now officially be known as the Gulf of America.”
The name change, the department said, reaffirms “the nation’s commitment to preserving the extraordinary heritage of the United States and ensuring that future generations of Americans celebrate the legacy of its heroes and historic assets.”
Then there follows a series of smaller actions with no specific timeline. A Department of Interior spokesperson told the Asbury Park Press that names are only binding to federal departments and agencies.
Historically, the U.S. Geological Survey and the Board on Geographic Names will update the Geographic Names Information System for federal use effective immediately, and the Department of State will update the Geographic Names Server — which is the official repository of standard spellings of all foreign geographic names.
Then it is up to each federal agency and office to change their signage and websites per their own budgetary needs and website update scheduling.
What does that all mean? Take an agency like the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which New Jersey fishermen and mariners interact with daily for marine weather and fishery regulation updates, and likely has hundreds if not thousands of pages of documents referencing Gulf of Mexico species such as red snapper and maps referring to the body of water as the Gulf of Mexico. Making that change will likely be a considerable undertaking.
A senior director of communications with NOAA told the Asbury Park Press they’ll be engaging with the Department of the Interior via their representative to the Board on Geographic Names for further guidance on implementation. The process is still to be determined and they can’t speculate on it.
As far as fishermen go, it doesn’t sound like it will be a quick adjustment, either.
“It will take a lot of getting used to because I’m so use to calling it the Gulf of Mexico,” said William Egerter Jr. captain of the Dauntless fishing vessel.
Internationally, the Trump’s order does not trigger any compulsory action but could be used for political and economic leverage. Three nations bounder the Gulf: Cuba, Mexico and the United States. And each has sovereign rights for the purposes of exploring, exploiting, conserving and managing natural resources, and jurisdiction in exclusive economic zones as provided for in international law.
Mexico’s President Claudia Sheinbaum has already fired back that North America should be called to America Mexicana, referring to an older Spanish usage. Notwithstanding early Viking exploration, the Spanish were the first Europeans to establish permanent colonies in the Americas, starting with the La Isabella outpost planted on Hispaniola by Christopher Columbus on his second voyage in 1493.
Western cartographers began to scratch Gulf of Mexico on maps in the 16th century, but it was not the most common usage until a century later. The name itself refers to the Mexica people, which is what the Aztecs called themselves.
“Internationally it will be interesting to see how it plays it out,” Schmelzkopf said, comparing the situation with that of the South China Sea, which several Asian nations border and call by different names, such as the West Philippine Sea, as the Philippines prefers, or the North Natuna Sea, as preferred by Indonesia.
Names can also change as politics change. One of Trump’s actions was to rename the nation’s tallest mountain Mount McKinley, a name which had been switched to Denali in 2015 under President Barack Obama, after the name meaning “the great one” used in the Athabaskan language of Alaska natives.
When Jersey Shore native Dan Radel is not reporting the news, you can find him in a college classroom where he is a history professor. Reach him @danielradelapp; 732-643-4072; dradel@gannettnj.com.