Lake America Name Begins Appearing on Google Maps in US

Google Maps has updated its site to include Lake America in place of Lake Ontario, following the direction of President Donald Trump’s executive order renaming the Great Lake.

“It’s official! LAKE AMERICA on Google Maps,” said Steven Cheung, assistant to the president & White House director of communications, posted on X on Sunday.

Google released a statement on the changing of the name of the body of water.

“The U.S. Geographic Names Information System (GNIS) has formally changed the name for ‘Lake Ontario’ to ‘Lake America’ in the United States,” the company said.

Since they update Google Maps to reflect name changes in official government sources, people using the application in the United States will see “Lake America,” Google said.

In Canada, users of Google Maps will continue to see “Lake Ontario,” and those outside of the two countries will see both names, the statement said.

Trump signed an executive order on Aug. 27 directing the Department of the Interior and the U.S. Board on Geographic Names to update federal records to identify Lake Ontario as Lake America.

The president said the change recognizes the United States’ role in protecting and maintaining the Great Lakes. The order cited nearly $4 billion in U.S. spending on the Great Lakes ecosystem during the past decade and said the U.S. Coast Guard operates nine of the 11 icebreaking vessels serving the lakes.

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney rejected the change, saying Canadians would continue calling it Lake Ontario. New York Gov. Kathy Hochul has also said the state will retain the lake’s traditional name.

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum announced on May 9 that her government had sued Google over the company’s decision to label the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America after Trump changed the name of that body of water.

Google made the change for U.S. users after Trump’s executive order directed the federal government to adopt the new name. Users in Mexico continued to see the Gulf of Mexico, while users elsewhere saw both names.

Sheinbaum had threatened legal action in February, arguing that the United States could rename only the portion of the gulf under its jurisdiction, not the body of water. She disclosed the lawsuit during her briefing but provided no details about where it was filed or what relief Mexico was seeking.