Google Maps renames Gulf of Mexico to Gulf of America

When Trump returned to office last month, he signed Executive Order 14172, which was headed "Restoring Names That Honour American Greatness." It ordered that the Gulf of Mexico be renamed the "Gulf of America" and that Denali be restored to its original name, Mount McKinley.

This decision prompted outrage and debate, pushing mapmakers and tech businesses to deal with the change.

Google Maps, one of the world's most prominent mapping services, indicated that it would update its maps for United States users to reflect the new name once federal revisions were completed.

This occurred despite Mexico's president, Claudia Sheinbaum, requesting the corporation to follow United Nations norms and continue using "Gulf of Mexico" on its platforms.

It appears like Google followed their promise. In a recent blog post, the Mountain View behemoth officially announced the move and explained what users might expect. Google stated:

In the U.S., the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS) has officially updated 'Gulf of Mexico' to 'Gulf of America.' As we announced two weeks ago and consistent with our longstanding practices, we’ve begun rolling out changes to reflect this update. People using Maps in the U.S. will see 'Gulf of America,' and people in Mexico will see 'Gulf of Mexico.' Everyone else will see both names.

Google also stated that the name displayed in Maps is determined by a variety of parameters, including location, SIM, network, and locality.