Escalating the trade dispute with Canada, US President Donald Trump last week announced that he was changing the name of the smallest of the five Great Lakes. As the trade talks between the US and Canada broke down, leading to a wave of tariffs and retaliatory tariffs, Trump signed an executive order to rename Lake Ontario to ‘Lake America’.After Trump’s announcement, Google began rolling out this change for US users. The company posted a brief update on its Google Maps blog, noting that it follows the US Geographic Names Information System (GNIS) for its maps. This primarily means that the company has to rename Lake Ontario in Google Maps. Google’s update on the name change also made it clear that the change will be only for Google Map users in the US. According to Google, those in the US will only see the new name, which is ‘Lake of America’. Meanwhile, Canadians will continue to see the ‘Lake Ontario’ label. In the rest of the world, Lake Ontario will take precedence, but Lake America will also be there in parentheses.
Google statement on the name chang
“The U.S. Geographic Names Information System (GNIS) has formally changed the name for “Lake Ontario” to “Lake America” in the United States. Since we update Google Maps to reflect name changes in official government sources, which is GNIS for the U.S., people using Maps in the U.S. will see “Lake America,” those in Canada will continue to see “Lake Ontario,” and those outside of the U.S. and Canada will see both names. These updates follow our long-standing policy for bodies of water with names that vary from country to country, and are starting to roll out now,” said the company in a blog update.
Canada PM Mark Carney on US renaming the Lake Ontario
In a post on X, formerly Twitter, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney wrote, “The name Lake Ontario comes from the Wendat word Ontari’io, which, appropriately, means “the lake is beautiful, the lake is big”. The name is more than 400 years old, predating both the Confederation of Canada and the Declaration of Independence of the United States of America. We know that America is changing. Their trading relationships, their foreign policies, their national monuments, their hydronyms. Canadians also know that naming reality means calling it Lake Ontario – then, now and always.”
Trump sends direct message to Apple to change the name
President Trump has reportedly “reached out to Apple directly” about changing Lake Ontario’s name to Lake America in Apple Maps. According to US Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, “The president reached out to Apple directly, so I’m sure that we may be seeing that change coming up soon to Lake America.” Burgum shared the same in an interview on Fox Business’ “Mornings with Maria” programme.
