Google announced it would update the Google Maps application to reflect the geographical name changes President Donald Trump directed through an executive order.
The company posted a thread on X stating that it has “received a few questions about naming within Google Maps” and intends to comply with the updates.
Google wrote that it has a “longstanding practice of applying name changes when they have been updated in official government sources,” which will also be followed in this instance.
“When that happens, we will update Google Maps in the U.S. quickly to show Mount McKinley and Gulf of America,” continued the company in the thread.
In 1917, the highest peak in North America, long known by the local Indigenous people of Alaska as Denali, was renamed Mount McKinley through an act of Congress. The renaming was meant to honor President William McKinley, who was assassinated in 1901.
In 2015, President Barack Obama and the Secretary of the Interior, Sally Jewell, announced that the mountain would officially be recognized once again as Denali. Then-presidential-candidate Donald Trump vowed at the time that he would reverse the name change if elected President. On January 20, 2025, the first day of President Trump’s second term in office, he signed an order to that effect.
In the White House executive order, Trump wrote that it is in the “national interest to promote the extraordinary heritage of our Nation and ensure future generations of American citizens celebrate the legacy of our American heroes.”
In addition, the President’s order directed that the body of water known as the Gulf of Mexico since the mid-1600s be renamed the Gulf of America.
The Department of the Interior wrote in a statement that the gulf “is one of the most vital assets in the Nation’s history and economy. … Its ports rank among the largest and most impressive in the world, connecting American goods to global markets.”
“Recognizing the Gulf’s enduring contributions to the economic strength and vitality of the United States, President Trump’s directive affirms its central importance to the Nation by officially renaming it the Gulf of America,” the statement continued.
Google noted that it would update the names on its maps when the changes have been recorded in the official government source, the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS). As of Tuesday, the name changes had not yet been updated in the GNIS.
“Also longstanding practice: When official names vary between countries, Maps users see their official local name. Everyone in the rest of the world sees both names. That applies here too,” Google explained in its post.