Google Maps to Rename Gulf of Mexico to Gulf of America for U.S. Users

Google Maps will change the name of “Gulf of Mexico” to “Gulf of America” once it is officially updated in the United States Geographic Names System, Google said in an X post on Monday.

The change will be visible in the US, but the name will remain “Gulf of Mexico” in Mexico. Outside of the two countries, users will see both names on Google Maps.

The Trump administration’s Interior Department said on Friday Google Maps had officially changed the name of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America, and the Alaskan peak Denali, the tallest mountain in North America, to Mount McKinley.

Also See: Trump’s Return: A New Era or More of the Same?

Google Maps, which is owned by Alphabet’s Google, will make a similar change with Mount McKinley.

President Donald Trump ordered the name changes as part of a flurry of executive actions hours after taking office on January 20, making good on a campaign promise.

“As directed by the President, the Gulf of Mexico will now officially be known as the Gulf of America and North America’s highest peak will once again bear the name Mount McKinley,” the Interior Department said in a statement last week.

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum earlier this month jokingly suggested North America, including the United States, be renamed “Mexican America” — a historic name used on an early map of the region.

Reached for comment, a Google spokesperson referred Reuters to the company’s X post.

Google has applied the same locale-based labelling conventions to other locations subject to naming disputes.

Outside of Japan and South Korea, the body of water bordering both nations is listed as the “Sea of Japan (East Sea).”

In 2012, Iran threatened to take legal action against Google over its decision to drop the term “Persian Gulf” from its Google Maps and leaving the waterway between Iran and the Arabian peninsula nameless.

The body of water is now labelled “Persian Gulf (Arabian Gulf)” in other countries.

This news is sourced from [Geo] and is for informational purposes only.

News Desk

Your trusted source for insightful journalism. Stay informed with our compelling coverage of global affairs, business, technology, and more.

News Desk

Your trusted source for insightful journalism. Stay informed with our compelling coverage of global affairs, business, technology, and more.

Recent

From The Periphery to the Center: What People at Our Margins Endure

SAT Web Administrator October 10, 2025

The South Asia Times (SAT) hosted a national webinar titled “From the Periphery to the Center: What People at Our Margins Endure,” spotlighting how Pakistan’s border regions, Balochistan, Gilgit-Baltistan, Azad Jammu & Kashmir, and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, face deep-rooted governance challenges, economic neglect, and communication voids. Experts called for shifting from a security-centric to an inclusion-driven policy model to rebuild trust, empower youth, and turn Pakistan’s peripheries into engines of national resilience.

The Indian Muslim: Living Between Faith and Fear

SAT Research October 9, 2025

In September 2025, a simple expression of faith became a crime. When a devotional social media trend, the ‘I Love Muhammad’ campaign, went viral, it was deliberately framed as a provocation by authorities. The state’s response was swift and brutal: mass arrests and punitive demolitions that turned a peaceful act of devotion into a national flashpoint, revealing a clear intent to police and punish Muslim identity itself.

Pakistan’s Stability: A Silent Pillar of US Strategic Interests

Alisha Zahra October 9, 2025

Long seen through a security lens, Pakistan is now redefining its role in US strategy, as a supplier of critical minerals, a connectivity hub between Central and South Asia, and a stabilizing force in a volatile region. Amid global competition with China and shifting energy dynamics, Washington increasingly views Pakistan’s stability not as a choice but as a strategic necessity anchoring its economic and geopolitical interests across Asia.

The Nobel Peace Prize or War Prize? A History of Controversial Laureates

SAT Editorial Desk October 8, 2025

Far from being an impartial recognition of pacifism, the Nobel Peace Prize’s legacy is marred by controversial laureates whose actions have been linked to immense violence. The prize is not a universal arbiter of peace but a political instrument reflecting a Western-centric worldview, rewarding figures who align with its geopolitical interests, regardless of the blood on their hands.

Eighty Years Later: Is the United Nations Becoming the League of Nations 2.0?

Ayesha Noor October 8, 2025

Eighty years after the UN’s creation to “save succeeding generations from war,” the organization stands at a breaking point. With veto paralysis, waning U.S. commitment, and global disillusionment, is the UN becoming the very institution it replaced—the League of Nations 2.0?