After renaming ‘Gulf of Mexico’ to ‘Gulf of America’, Google Maps changes name of ‘Lake Ontario’

Google Maps has officially changed its display label for Lake Ontario to “Lake America” for users inside the US, implementing the adjustment in response to a presidential executive order issued late last week. The change mirrors a similar geographic revision enacted in February 2025, when Google Maps altered the designation of the Gulf of Mexico to “Gulf of America.”In an official blog post, Google explained that the updated naming convention appears differently depending on where the user is browsing from around the world.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.