Google Maps has officially renamed Lake Ontario to Lake America for users located in the United States. This change follows an executive order signed by President Donald Trump, as reported by Reuters.
On Thursday, Trump announced his decision to change the name of the smallest of the five Great Lakes amid escalating trade tensions with Canada, where both countries have imposed tariffs on billions of dollars worth of goods.
The executive order impacts the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS) in the United States, which sets the standards for official US maps. However, it does not affect naming conventions in Canada or other countries.
According to a blog post from Google, users in the US will see the name Lake America, while Canadian users will continue to see Lake Ontario. Globally, both names will be displayed.
This is not the first time Google has made such a change; last year, Trump renamed the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America on his first day in office.
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney quickly rejected the name change, noting that Lake Ontario serves as a boundary between Canada and the US. New York Governor Kathy Hochul also opposed the change, stating that “New York will not refer to it that way” regarding the state situated on the US-Canada border.
Doug Ford, the Premier of Ontario, unveiled a large bilingual sign on the shores of the lake that reads “Lake Ontario: Now and Forever.” He stated, “President Trump can call it whatever he wants, but I can assure you the rest of the world will always refer to it as Lake Ontario.”
