California-based internet giant says the name of the body of water will depend on the user’s location.
Google has begun calling the Gulf of Mexico the Gulf of America following United States President Donald Trump’s executive order renaming the body of water.
The California-based internet giant said on Monday that the name of the gulf on its applications would depend on the location of the user.
“People using Maps in the U.S. will see ‘Gulf of America,’ and people in Mexico will see ‘Gulf of Mexico.’ Everyone else will see both names,” Google wrote in a blog post.
Google flagged its intention to make the change in a post on X last month, explaining that it uses the designations of the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS), a database run by the US Geological Survey.
In the same X post, Google said it would also change the name of Mount Denali in Alaska to Mount McKinley, after former US President William McKinley, once it was updated in the official database in line with Trump’s order.
Trump signed his executive order to rename the natural features hours after taking office on January 20, casting it as a decision to “honour American greatness”.
Mount Denali, the highest peak in North America, was given its name by the Indigenous Koyukon Athabascan people.
The US government changed its name to Mount McKinley in 1917 in honour of the late Republican president, who was assassinated by an anarchist in 1901.
Former US President Barack Obama’s administration restored the mountain’s Indigenous name in 2015 before a presidential visit to Alaska.
Trump’s decision to rename the natural features drew backlash from Indigenous groups in Alaska and prompted Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum to sarcastically suggest that North America be renamed “Mexican America”, as it was referred to in one of the country’s founding documents.
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