Lake Ontario has officially become Lake America on Google Maps, at least for users in the United States.
Google Maps announced the switch on Aug. 29, two days after President Donald Trump signed an executive order formally changing the lake’s name within America.
“Since we update Google Maps to reflect name changes in official government sources … 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,” Google posted on its news blog. “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.”
Google Maps previously recognized the Gulf of Mexico’s name change to the Gulf of America.
Where is ‘Lake America’?
The lake borders New York state and the Canadian province of Ontario.
Trump’s recent executive order noted, “the deepest parts of the Lake’s waters lying within United States territory, the United States claims most of the Lake’s volume.”
However, the day the president signed the order, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney posted on X: “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.” Carney added that for Canadians, it would always be Lake Ontario.
Why did Lake Ontario’s name change?
An image from Google shows Lake Ontario renamed as Lake America, at least in the United States, after President Donald Trump signed an executive order directing his administration to rename the body of water sitting between the United States and Canada. Trump’s order, which he signed in the Oval Office on Aug. 27, instructs the Department of the Interior and the U.S. Board on Geographic Names to formalize the change within 30 days. As he signed the order, Trump compared the move to his action last year to rename the Gulf of Mexico the Gulf of America.
In January 2025, Trump signed an executive order aimed at “restoring names that honor American greatness.”
Citing that order and America’s long history with and investment in Lake Ontario, the president signed a new order on Aug. 27 changing its name to Lake America and directing the Geographic Names Information System to do the same, which both the U.S. government and Google refer to for maps and documentation.
The executive orders have no say in how other countries refer to geographic areas.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Google Maps shows Lake America instead of Lake Ontario after Trump order
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