After US President Donald Trump signed an executive order to rename Canada's Lake Ontario to Lake America, US tech giants Apple and Google followed suit in their Maps apps for their US consumers despite there being no legal obligation for them to do so.
Trump's move came after trade talks between Washington DC and Canada collapsed and Trump imposed 50% tariffs on $20-billion worth of imports from Canada.
US Interior Secretary Doug Burgum told Fox Business' Mornings with Maria that Trump had reached out to Apple directly, asking them to change the name to Lake America for their US users. "I'm sure we may be seeing that change coming up soon," he then said.
Over the weekend, Google followed suit. The company issued a statement on Saturday in which it revealed that its users in the US will be seeing the name Lake America since the company has to comply with the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS).
In the executive order that Trump had issued, he directed the interior secretary to "take all appropriate actions" so that the change of name is reflected in GNIS, which is the official map database of the US government.
However, all companies did not comply with the new name change. MapQuest, which is one of the oldest mapping services (functioning since 1996) refused to change the name of the lake, saying in a Facebook post on Friday that "we're not changing it".
Are private companies bound by the executive order?
No, private companies are not bound the executive order issued by the Trump administration. They can still continue to call it Lake Ontario, as MapQuest has chosen to do so.
The executive order operates within the executive authority of the President, which principally directs the government's executive-branch agencies.
What about the Gulf of Mexico, which Trump had renamed to Gulf of America?
On 20 January, 2025, Trump issued an executive order renaming the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America. The GNIS subsequently updated the name as per the order.
Google followed suit, renaming the area for their US users to Gulf of America. However, their users in Mexico continue seeing the area as the Gulf of Mexico.
Apple also took the same approach, adopting the name Gulf of America in its maps for the US.
