Google Maps renames "Lake Ontario" to "Lake America" faster than US Government

Trade talks between the US and Canada broke down last week, leading to a wave of tariffs and retaliatory tariffs. President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Thursday to rename Lake Ontario to “Lake America.” The body of water, which straddles the US-Canada border, gave its name to the Canadian province rather than the other way around. Regardless, the US government now refers to the lake as Lake America—or it will soon.

Official US government maps have yet to be updated, but Google wasted no time adopting the new name. Google began rolling out the change for US users on Saturday. The company posted a brief update on its Google Maps blog, noting that it follows the US Geographic Names Information System (GNIS) for its maps, implying it had no choice but to rename Lake Ontario in Google Maps, the most popular mapping platform in the US by a wide margin.

Google was even quicker to switch than the US government. While the GNIS database acknowledges the name change in a summary report, the base map layer still reflects the internationally recognized name of Lake Ontario. A message across the top of the USGS-operated website notes that the change to official maps is still pending.