Washington — Google said Saturday it has started updating Google Maps to reflect a new U.S. naming policy for Lake Ontario, after President Trump signed an executive order rebranding the body of water as “Lake America” during an escalating trade dispute with Canada.
Mr. Trump signed the executive order last week, targeting the lake that stretches between New York state and Ontario, Canada’s most populous province. The action followed his earlier threat to rename the lake as relations between the United States and Canada grew increasingly strained over trade.
Under Google’s update, users in the United States will see the lake labeled “Lake America,” while users in Canada will continue to see “Lake Ontario,” the company said in a Saturday statement. Outside the two countries, Google Maps will show both names, with “Lake America” listed in parentheses.
“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 said.
The map change arrives as the U.S.-Canada trade conflict has intensified in recent weeks. After talks failed to resolve the standoff, the United States began applying 50% tariffs on hundreds of Canadian products earlier this month. In response, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said Canada would impose matching tariffs of up to 50% on billions of dollars in American goods beginning next month.
The executive order came after Mr. Trump clashed publicly with Ontario Premier Doug Ford. It instructed Interior Secretary Doug Burgum to revise the Geographic Names Information System, or GNIS, which works with the U.S. Board on Geographic Names to standardize place names for federal government use. Google pointed to that official GNIS update, saying its maps are adjusted “to reflect name changes in official government sources.”
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The decision follows another Trump-era geographic renaming effort: changing the Gulf of Mexico to the “Gulf of America” for federal references. As with that change, other countries are not obligated to adopt the new U.S. designation.
White House Communications Director Steven Cheung celebrated the name change on Sunday in a post on X, saying, “It’s official! LAKE AMERICA on Google Maps.”
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said after the president signed the executive order last week, “New York won’t be calling it that.”
