Following Google, Apple Updates Its Map To ‘Gulf Of America’

Not all users will see the new name.

Apple Maps has complied with Donald Trump’s executive order to rename the Gulf of Mexico the Gulf of America, updating its navigation system and implementing the change on all U.S. versions of the platform.

Google announced its intent to follow the Trump administration’s executive order in a Jan. 27 post on X, explaining that the change was due to “longstanding practices” that require the company to follow government updates.

to “long standing practices” for the company to follow government updates.

We’ve received a few questions about naming within Google Maps. We have a longstanding practice of applying name changes when they have been updated in official government sources.
— News from Google (@NewsFromGoogle) January 27, 2025

The change will also not be honored worldwide. Mexican Google users will still see “Gulf of Mexico,” U.S. users will see “Gulf of America,” and all other global users will see both names.

The name change is part of the Trump administration’s campaign to “Restore U.S. Names That Honor American Greatness.” According to the executive order, the Trump administration has also renamed Denali Mount McKinley, which negates President Barack Obama’s efforts to restore American geography names closer to their original Indigenous names.

The administration even declared Feb. 9 Gulf of America Day. Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum has objected to the name change.

Questions have arisen about the administration’s legal ability to change the name of one of the world’s bodies of water. The Gulf of Mexico is a split territory where the United States can only claim 12 nautical miles. Sheinbaum asserted that the rest of the territory, as dictated by the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, is Mexico’s sovereign territory.

In the executive order, the administration acknowledged that renaming involves Congress’ participation. Yet, the government will proceed with the new name while seeking the proper approval to update the changes in federal documents.

“Where Congressional action is required to establish a renaming in public law, following Board approval on renaming, the Board shall provide guidance to all relevant Federal agencies to use the Board-approved name in the interim in federal documents and achieve consistency across the federal government,” Section 2 (d) of the order states.