Washington — Google announced on Saturday that it had begun rolling out changes to how its maps display Lake Ontario’s name, after President Trump signed an executive order changing it to “Lake America” amid a trade fight between the U.S. and Canada.
The president signed an executive order last week to rename the lake, which sits between Canada’s most populous province, Ontario, and New York state. The move came after he had threatened the change earlier in the week as tense trade dynamics between the historically allied countries came to a head.
People in the U.S. will see “Lake America” on their maps, while in Canada, they will see “Lake Ontario,” Google said in a statement on Saturday. Beyond the U.S. and Canada, people will see both names displayed on their map, with “Lake America” appearing 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 U.S. and Canada have been locked in a tense trade fight in recent weeks after negotiators failed to reach an agreement to end the standoff. Earlier this month, the U.S. began imposing 50% tariffs on hundreds of Canadian goods, prompting Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney to announce that Canada will begin imposing matching tariffs of up to 50% on billions of dollars of U.S. goods next month.
With his executive order, which came after the president sparred with Ontario’s Premier Doug Ford, Mr. Trump directed Interior Secretary Doug Burgum to update the Geographic Names Information System, which works with the U.S. Board on Geographic Names to standardize geographic names for federal use. Google cited the formal name change under the GNIS, noting that its maps are updated “to reflect name changes in official government sources.”
The change comes after Mr. Trump also changed the Gulf of Mexico to the “Gulf of America” earlier in his term, which was likewise applied to federal references, while other nations aren’t required to recognize the name.
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.”
