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United States President Donald Trump’s executive orders have crept into the realm of digital cartography. Google announced on Monday that its online mapping platform, Google Maps, will change the name of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America for users in the US.
Additionally, Google Maps will change the name of North America’s tallest peak, Mount Denali, to Mount McKinley. These changes will be reflected on the platform once they are made officially by the US government.
Here’s how Google has dealt with places with disputed names in the past, and how the new change will work:
What exactly will change on Google Maps?
- The name of the Gulf of Mexico will change to Gulf of America for users who are within the US.
- It will remain Gulf of Mexico for users within Mexico.
- Google Maps will display both Gulf of Mexico and Gulf of America to users who are neither in the US nor in Mexico.
- The name of Mount Denali will be changed to Mount McKinley for Google Maps users across the world.
How did we get here?
On the day of his inauguration on January 20, Trump signed 26 executive orders. One of these orders renames the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America, and Mount Denali to Mount McKinley.
The Gulf of Mexico is a water body, bound by Cuba, eastern states in Mexico: Tamaulipas, Veracruz, Tabasco, Campeche, Yucatan and Quintana Roo; and states on the Gulf Coast of the United States: Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida.
The snow-capped Mount Denali in Alaska is the highest mountain in North America at an elevation of 6,190 metres (20,308 feet).
The Gulf of Mexico has had its name for about 400 years. In his book, The Principall Navigations, Voiages and Discoveries of the English Nation, published in 1589, English geographer Richard Hakluyt calls the water body “Gulfe of Mexico”. In Mexico, the gulf is also called by its Spanish name, El Golfo de Mexico.
Trump can rename the Gulf of Mexico for his domestic audience, but the rest of the world does not have to go with that name change, since there are no international laws that decide what a common maritime space or a disputed territory is called universally.
Renaming Mount Denali is more straightforward since it is part of US territory. Trump wishes to rename the mountain Mount McKinley after former Republican William McKinley, who was president from 1897 to 1901, and never visited Alaska.
“Our nation’s tallest mountain, which has been called Denali for thousands of years, must continue to be known by the rightful name bestowed by Alaska’s Koyukon Athabascans, who have stewarded the land since time immemorial,” Lisa Murkowski, a Republican US senator from Alaska, posted on X as a response.
The mountain’s name was officially changed to Mount McKinley in 1917. In 2015, the name was changed back to Denali by former Democrat President Barack Obama.
Denali, in the Kuyokan Athabascan language, means “the tall one” or “the high one”. The Indigenous people of Alaska, as well as other residents of the state, prefer the name Denali.
When will Google Maps make the change?
The exact date is not known yet. Google will update the name on its map application when the US government officially makes the change.
“We have a longstanding practice of applying name changes when they have been updated in official government,” Google posted on X on Monday.
In the case of the US, the change will reflect on the application when the names are updated in the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS), the official database maintained by the US Geological Survey (USGS) which contains names of more than one million geographic sites in the US.
It is unclear when the names will be updated on the GNIS, but when Trump signed the January 20 executive order, he wanted the name change within 30 days, which would be February 19.
Why did Google Maps make the change?
“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 said in a post on X on Monday.
A 2008 Google Public Policy Blog post explains further: “For each difficult case, we gather a cross-functional group of Googlers including software engineers, product managers, GIS specialists, policy analysts, and geopolitical researchers. This process benefits from the local knowledge and experience of Googlers around the world.”
But there are also clear economic rationales that drive decisions of companies like Google, say experts.
Companies such as Google make maps “to support their business missions of search and advertising, so the decisions they make about what to put in their maps will ultimately be the decisions that support those goals,” Sterling Quinn, an associate professor at the department of geography in Central Washington University, told Al Jazeera.
Google’s approach, he said, is to “try to make as few customers angry as possible”, either by adding customisations based on region or by introducing ambiguity by either removing names of places or adding multiple names.
“Corporate mapping decisions in political disputes can depend on the economic and political power of the involved parties. I view Google’s ‘Gulf of America’ change as more of a sign that they want to maintain uninterrupted business, rather than a sign that they agree with Trump’s change,” Quinn added.
Has this happened before?
Yes, Google Maps displays different names for certain places, depending on who’s looking.
Kashmir
Both India and Pakistan control parts of Kashmir and claim all of the territory of the mountainous region. In 2019, India revoked the semi-autonomous status of Indian-administered Kashmir, cleaving it into two regions – Jammu and Kashmir in the west and Ladakh in the east.
If you are in India, Jammu and Kashmir, as well as Ladakh appear to be a part of India on Google Maps, with a solid black line around Kashmir. If you are in another country, including Pakistan, Google Maps outlines Jammu and Kashmir, as well as Ladakh, with a black dashed line.
Persian Gulf or Arabian Gulf
What Iran calls the Persian Gulf is called the Arabian Gulf by Arab nations. The water body is bound by Bahrain, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
If you are in Iran, Google Maps labels the water body as the Persian Gulf. If you are in an Arab country that has a coast on the gulf, such as Qatar, Google Maps will call it the Arabian Gulf. If you are in any other country that does not have a coast on the gulf, Google Maps labels the water body “Persian Gulf (Arabian Gulf)”.
Sea of Japan or East Sea
The sea that is bound by Japan and the Korean Peninsula is called the Sea of Japan by Japan, while both North and South Korea call it the East Sea.
If you are in Japan, Google Maps labels it the Sea of Japan. In South Korea, it appears as the East Sea. Outside of Japan and South Korea, it appears as “Sea of Japan (East Sea)”.
How have people reacted to the recent Google Maps announcement?
The Google Maps announcement about the upcoming changes related to the Gulf of Mexico prompted a mixed bag of responses online. On X, while many welcomed the move, some posted about shifting to other mapping platforms such as Apple Maps.
When it does, I will delete google and use DuckDuckGo and Apple maps.
— UncleTummy No Blue checkmark but voting Blue (@UncleTummyTX) January 29, 2025
However, in November 2019, the lower house of the Russian parliament announced that Apple Maps would display Crimea as part of Russia when viewed from Russia. In 2014, Russia annexed Crimea in an internationally condemned move.
Outside Russia, Crimea is clearly marked as Ukrainian territory on Apple Maps.
Currently, on Google Maps, there is a black dashed line between Ukraine and Crimea, as well as between Ukraine and Russia, whether the map is viewed from Ukraine, Russia or another country.
Al Jazeera reached out to Apple to ask whether Apple Maps will be changing the names of the Gulf of Mexico or Mount Denali, but did not receive a response.
Are maps objective?
Not really.
“Many people want to treat maps like objective documents, but maps are a product of the culture and values of the people that produce them,” Quinn, the geography professor, said.
He explained that names of places have always been “fluid, contested, and political”.
“Ultimately, people who use the names will be the ones who decide what they are,” he said, adding that names of geographical sites that people use in conversations might not always be reflected in institutionally produced maps.
“That being said, a widely-used map like Google Maps has a lot of potential to influence the way that people perceive the world.”
