Google Maps has changed the label for Lake Ontario to “Lake America” for users in the United States, following President Donald Trump’s executive order renaming the Great Lake and a subsequent update to the federal government’s geographic naming database.
Google said the change began rolling out after the U.S. Geographic Names Information System, or GNIS, formally adopted “Lake America” as the name used by the United States. Under Google’s approach, people accessing Maps in the U.S. will see “Lake America,” while users in Canada will continue to see “Lake Ontario.” People elsewhere will see both names, with Lake America shown alongside the traditional name.
The company said the decision reflects its established practice of updating Maps when official government sources change geographic names, particularly when bodies of water are known by different names in different countries. The move echoes Google’s response to Trump’s earlier order renaming the Gulf of Mexico as the “Gulf of America” for U.S. users. Google and Apple also previously changed their U.S. labels for North America’s highest peak from Denali to Mount McKinley after a federal name change.
Lake Ontario, the smallest of the five Great Lakes, sits along the U.S.-Canada border between New York and the province of Ontario. Trump signed the Lake Ontario order on Thursday, making the change effective immediately for the U.S. government as tensions between Washington and Ottawa remain elevated over trade. The administration has framed the renaming around the lake’s economic importance and its historic role in the development of the United States.
The decision, however, does not determine what Canada or other countries call the lake. Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney has rejected the new U.S. name and said Canada will continue to call it Lake Ontario. Ontario Premier Doug Ford also pushed back publicly, unveiling a large sign on the Canadian side of the lake declaring “Lake Ontario — Now and Always.”
Ford later dismissed the renaming as something resembling a “Saturday Night Live” sketch and said the lake’s longstanding name would endure. The Seneca Nation has also called for the order to be rescinded, arguing that the name Lake Ontario is tied to Indigenous history and treaty language.
The shift has also produced different responses among mapping services. As of Sunday, Apple Maps and Waze were still showing “Lake Ontario,” while MapQuest publicly said it would not adopt the new name.
Google’s update means the same body of water now appears under different labels depending on where a Maps user is located. For U.S. users, the federal name change has already reached one of the world’s most widely used digital mapping platforms. In Canada, however, the response from political leaders makes clear that “Lake Ontario” remains firmly in place.
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