Google said users of its mapping service in the United States will see the name “Lake America” instead of Lake Ontario, following an executive order issued by President Donald Trump to rename the smallest of the five Great Lakes, amid an escalating trade dispute between the United States and Canada.
Different name depending on the user’s location
The company said it updates the names displayed on its maps based on official government sources, including the U.S. Geographic Names Information System. Under the update, users in Canada will continue to see the name “Lake Ontario,” while both names will appear for users outside the United States and Canada.
Trump’s order applies only to the U.S. system that sets official mapping standards in the United States; it does not change Canadian naming rules or the way the rest of the world refers to the lake.
Canadian and U.S. opposition to the decision
The name change came amid a trade dispute that led the United States and Canada to impose reciprocal tariffs on goods worth billions of dollars. As of publication, the White House, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney’s office and Ontario Premier Doug Ford’s office had not commented on Google’s decision.
Carney had rejected the name change, while Democratic New York Governor Kathy Hochul said her state would not use the new name. Republican Vermont Governor Phil Scott also described Trump’s decision as “trivial and disappointing” in a social media post.
Trivial and disappointing
In Ontario, Ford unveiled a lakeside sign reading “Lake Ontario: Now and Forever” in English and French. He said Trump could call it whatever he wanted, but the rest of the world would continue to use the name Lake Ontario.
A mechanism previously applied to the Gulf of Mexico
Google Maps applied a similar mechanism to the Gulf of Mexico the previous year, displaying the name “Gulf of America” after Trump issued an executive order on his first day in office to rename the body of water.
