Google Maps has changed the name of Lake Ontario to “Lake America” for users in the US.
It comes days after President Donald Trump ordered the lake to be renamed, which included changing the US Geographic Names Information System (GNIS).
“Since we update Google Maps to reflect name changes in official government sources, which is GNIS for the US, people using Maps in the US will see ‘Lake America,’ those in Canada will continue to see ‘Lake Ontario,’ and those outside of the US and Canada will see both names,” Google said in a brief statement.
“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’s decision to follow through with Trump’s order echoes its 2025 move to label the Gulf of Mexico as the “Gulf of America.” Mexico sued Google in response.
Why did Trump order the name change?
Lake Ontario gets its name from the Indigenous Wendat word “Ontari’io,” meaning “big, beautiful lake.” The province of Ontario to the north later adopted this name after the lake.
Trump’s decision to change this centuries-old name comes amid a trade war between the US and Canada.
The two countries had spent weeks negotiating a deal to resolve the war which was prompted by Trump’s tariffs on Canada, but Ottawa pulled out after Prime Minister Mark Carney complained of “last-minute changes” that were “unfair, uneconomic, and called into question the reliability of any deal.”
Among the sticking points, Carney said, were American objections to French product labeling laws as well as French content requirements for streaming services in Quebec.
Canada puts up signs, takes down websites
On Saturday, Ontario Premier Doug Ford unveiled a new sign on the shore of the lake.
It read, “Lake Ontario: Now and always” — in both English and French.
“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.
However, the new name “Lake America” did sneak into some applications north of the border.
A number of government-run websites in Canada that use Google Maps saw the name change automatically. This included the Liquor Control Board of Ontario, which had actually pulled American alcohol off the shelves as part of the trade war.
“Some Ontario government agency websites pull map data directly from Google Maps,” Ontario’s public services minister Stephen Crawford said on Sunday evening.
“Following recent changes by Google, we’re actively reviewing our websites to make sure they all identify Lake Ontario by its correct name: Lake Ontario.”
Edited by: Wesley Dockery
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