Google faces strong backlash after saying it will change ‘Gulf of Mexico’ to ‘Gulf of America’ in Maps

[ResidentialBusiness]

One of President Trump’s more unexpected Day One executive orders was to rename the Gulf of Mexico the “Gulf of America.” The move was met with laughter and ridicule—but now the world’s preeminent mapping giant, Google Maps, is saying its software will reflect the name change. And that’s not going over well with many of Google’s users. Here’s what to know:

Can Trump rename the Gulf of Mexico?

After some of the laughter died down, people started to wonder if the president of the United States could unilaterally rename an internationally recognized body of water.

It turns out he can, although within limits.

As Fast Company previously reported, a president can rename geographic constructs in official documents and other government publications. However, a big caveat to this “power” is that the rest of the world doesn’t have to recognize the name change—other countries can keep on referring to the Gulf of Mexico as they always have.

The same is true for private American mapping companies. A private company is under no legal obligation to change its name on its maps. However, given how America’s tech oligarchs have cozied up to Trump, it’s no wonder that one of America’s largest tech giants has now announced it will also rename the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America in its maps.

Google recognizes the name change

Google Maps is the most popular mapping solution in America and in much of the world. And now the company has announced that it will change the name of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America in its maps.

In a series of posts on X yesterday, the official @NewsFromGoogle account announced that Google Maps will now display “Gulf of America” instead of “Gulf of Mexico.”

“We’ve received a few questions about naming within Google Maps,” the post read. “We have a longstanding practice of applying name changes when they have been updated in official government sources.” It went on to explain that it takes its U.S. names from the U.S. Geographic Names Information System (GNIS). 

Google then explained that when the GNIS has been updated with the “Gulf of America” name change, as well as the name change of “Mount McKinley” from its current name, Denali, the GNIS changes will be reflected in Google Maps.

“When that happens, we will update Google Maps in the U.S. quickly to show Mount McKinley and Gulf of America,” the company said in another post.

Google faces backlash to the name change

While some users seemed happy to embrace Google’s relabeling of the Gulf of Mexico, the company’s posts on X were also met with harsh backlash. Many threatened to remove Google apps from their devices:

I will remove EVERYTHING fking Google thing from phone and pc. Fking senile leader and you cave.

— Deborah 🔥 (@deborahc613) January 28, 2025

Others asked if Google’s announcement was a joke.

Still, others likened Google’s relabeling to the “Freedom Fries” era in America in the early 2000s. At the time, a number of Republicans embraced the idea of renaming French fries to Freedom fries due to France’s opposition to the invasion of Iraq.

Others accused Google of kissing up to Trump.

Then, there were those who said they would be switching from Google Maps to Apple Maps.

Time to move to Apple Maps for good

— Yul (@yul_magdaleno) January 28, 2025

Fast Company has reached out to Google for comment. We’ve also reached out to Apple to ask if it plans to relabel the Gulf of Mexico.

What name will the rest of the world see?

Finally, some users in other parts of the world were concerned about whether they too would see the relabeled name. Google clarified that this wouldn’t necessarily be the case. In a post on X, Google said it would continue to abide by its longstanding practice:

“When official names vary between countries, Maps users see their official local name. Everyone in the rest of the world sees both names,” the post explained. “That applies here too.”

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