Photo Courtesy of AP
Google announced it will follow the lead of the U.S. government if it needs to update the names of the Gulf of Mexico and Denali on its maps.
The company stated on Monday that any changes will only be made once the government officially revises its listings for both the Gulf and the mountain.
After taking office, President Donald Trump issued an executive order to rename the Gulf of Mexico to the “Gulf of America,” and to revert the name of the nation’s highest peak back to Mt. McKinley, which had been its name for over a century.
“We have a longstanding policy of implementing name changes when they’re officially updated in government records,” Google said in a post on X (formerly Twitter).
The company explained that Google Maps will reflect any updates made to the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS), a database maintained by the U.S. government that includes over a million geographic features across the country.
“If these updates occur, we will quickly update Google Maps in the U.S. to show ‘Mount McKinley’ and ‘Gulf of America,’” Google added.
While “Denali” is the name used by Alaska Natives for the mountain, former President Barack Obama officially changed the name from Mt. McKinley to Denali in 2015, honoring the indigenous term for the peak. The name “McKinley” had been chosen in the late 1800s by a gold prospector in tribute to President William McKinley.
The Associated Press (AP), which serves a global audience, will continue to use the original name, “Gulf of Mexico,” acknowledging the alternative name “Gulf of America” in its reporting. However, AP will still use “Mount McKinley” instead of Denali in its articles. Since the area is entirely within the U.S., Trump’s authority as president allows him to make such changes to federal geographic names.