Following Trump’s executive order, Google renamed Lake Ontario for the U.S.
31 August 06:12
Starting Friday, August 29, the Google Maps service began implementing U.S. President Donald Trump’s August 27 executive order to rename Lake Ontario —the smallest of the five Great Lakes, located on the country’s border with Canada—to “Lake America.” This was reported by "Komersant Ukrainian", citing DW.
The decision to rename the lake on Google Maps was explained by the fact that Trump’s executive order amends the U.S. Geographic Names Information System (GNIS).
“Since we update Google Maps based on data from official government sources (for the U.S., that source is the GNIS), users of the service in the U.S. will see the name ‘Lake America,’ while in Canada, as before, it will be ‘Lake Ontario,’ while users in other countries will see both options,” the company said in a statement.
Google representatives emphasized that “these changes are consistent with our long-standing policy regarding bodies of water whose names vary by country.”
In February 2025, following a Trump executive order, Google renamed the Gulf of Mexico
The renaming of Lake Ontario is not the first instance of a geographic feature being renamed since Trump returned to power in January 2025. Less than a month after the inauguration of the 47th U.S. president, the service renamed the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America for users in the United States. Outside the country, the new name appears in parentheses after the traditional one.
The renaming on the service’s page occurred after the GNIS changed the name of the gulf. At the same time, at Trump’s initiative, U.S. authorities restored the name McKinley to Denali Mountain in Alaska, a name that had been used from 1896 to 1975.
Trump renamed the lake after the collapse of a trade deal with Canada; Carney responded
The name of Lake Ontario was changed a few days after the U.S. and Canada failed to reach an agreement on a new trade deal. Following the breakdown of negotiations, Washington imposed a 50% tariff on a range of goods from its neighbor. In response, Ottawa also announced tariffs of up to 50%.
Immediately after the U.S. administration renamed the lake, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney stated that the former name had existed for over 400 years: “It predates the formation of the Canadian Confederation and the adoption of the U.S. Declaration of Independence.” “We know that America is changing. Its trade ties, foreign policy, national monuments, and even place names are changing. But Canadians know this: calling things by their proper names means calling this lake Lake Ontario. That’s how it has always been, and that’s how it will always be,” Carney wrote at the time on his page on social media platform X.
In addition, on August 29, Doug Ford, the premier of the Canadian province of Ontario, erected a billboard on the Canadian shore of the renamed body of water bearing the inscription “Lake Ontario: Now and Forever” in English and French. “President Trump can call it whatever he wants, but I can tell you that the rest of the world will always call it Lake Ontario,” Ford said.
Watch us on YouTube: important topics – without censorship
