Google Maps has changed the name of Lake Ontario to “Lake America” for users in the United States, the company said, following an executive order signed by President Donald Trump amid an escalating trade dispute with Canada.
Google said in a statement Saturday that the U.S. Geographic Names Information System (GNIS) had formally adopted “Lake America” as the official name for the smallest of the Great Lakes within the United States. Because Google Maps updates place names to match official government sources — GNIS in the case of the U.S. — the platform now displays “Lake America” for users inside the country.
How the change appears
Google said users in Canada will continue to see “Lake Ontario,” while those outside both countries will see both names listed together. The change does not affect Canadian government naming conventions or how the lake is referred to internationally.
Trump announced the renaming Thursday as part of his broader executive order affecting U.S. geographic databases, in what officials described as a move tied to ongoing tariff tensions between Washington and Ottawa.
Reaction
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney rejected the name change shortly after it was announced. New York Governor Kathy Hochul, a Democrat whose state borders the lake, said the state would not adopt the new name, while Vermont’s Republican governor, Phil Scott, criticized the decision as unnecessary. Ontario Premier Doug Ford unveiled a lakeside sign reading “Lake Ontario: Now and Always” in English and French in response.
An Ontario government minister, Stephen Crawford, said Sunday that several provincial agency websites pulling data from Google Maps had inadvertently displayed the new name, and that officials were reviewing their sites to restore the “Lake Ontario” label.
Precedent
The move mirrors Google’s earlier decision to rename the Gulf of Mexico as the “Gulf of America” on U.S. maps last year, after Trump signed a similar executive order during his first days back in office.
