Google Maps renames Lake Ontario to Lake America for US users
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Google Maps has begun displaying “Lake America” in place of Lake Ontario for users in the United States, following US President Donald Trump’s executive order to change the name amid the trade war with Canada.
The change comes after a presidential executive order signed Thursday, directing the US Geographic Names Information System (GNIS) and related federal systems to adopt the new designation for the body of water that forms part of the border between New York and the Canadian province of Ontario.
The National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency confirmed it had implemented the update in its Geographic Names Server, describing the lake as supporting hundreds of thousands of US jobs and serving as a key freight corridor.
In a brief blog post published on Saturday, Google explained its approach: “The U.S. Geographic Names Information System (GNIS) has formally changed the name for ‘Lake Ontario’ to ‘Lake America’ in the United States. Since we update Google Maps to reflect name changes in official government sources, which is GNIS for the U.S., people using Maps in the U.S. will see ‘Lake America,’ those in Canada will continue to see ‘Lake Ontario,’ and those outside of the U.S. and Canada will see both names. 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.”
The move mirrors Google’s earlier handling of the 2025 renaming of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America for US users.
The lake itself straddles the international boundary, creating a split display that differs from purely domestic or coastal features.
Canadian leaders rejected the redesignation.
Prime Minister Mark Carney stated that “the name Lake Ontario comes from the Wendat word Ontari’io, which, appropriately, means ‘the lake is beautiful, the lake is big.’ The name is more than 400 years old, predating both the Confederation of Canada and the Declaration of Independence of the United States of America.”
He added that “Canadians also know that naming reality means calling it Lake Ontario — then, now and always.”
Ontario Premier Doug Ford responded by unveiling a large shoreline sign reading “Lake Ontario: Now and Always” (with a French equivalent) at Fifty Point Conservation Area.
“President Trump can call it whatever he wants, but I can tell you, the rest of the world will always call it Lake Ontario,” Ford said.
“We’re always going to protect our sovereignty, always. And we’ll never ever back down from a bully.”
Other mapping services have taken different paths.
MapQuest publicly declined to adopt the new name, while Apple Maps had not yet updated its labels as of the initial Google rollout.
