LIFESTYLE

The Gulf of Whatnow? Mapmakers grapple with Trump’s geographic renaming plans

Jan 22, 2025, 10:38 PM

FILE - The water in the Gulf of Mexico appears bluer than usual off of East Beach, Saturday, June 2...

FILE - The water in the Gulf of Mexico appears bluer than usual off of East Beach, Saturday, June 24, 2023, in Galveston, Texas. (Jill Karnicki/Houston Chronicle via AP, File)
Credit: ASSOCIATED PRESS

(Jill Karnicki/Houston Chronicle via AP, File)

What’s in a name change, after all?

The water bordered by the Southern United States, Mexico and Cuba will be critical to shipping lanes and vacationers whether it’s called the Gulf of Mexico, as it has been for four centuries, or the Gulf of America, as President Donald Trump ordered this week. North America’s highest mountain peak will still loom above Alaska whether it’s called Mt. Denali, as ordered by former President Barack Obama in 2015, or changed back to Mt. McKinley as Trump also decreed.

But Trump’s territorial assertions, in line with his “America First” worldview, sparked a round of rethinking by mapmakers and teachers, snark on social media and sarcasm by at least one other world leader. And though Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis put the Trumpian “Gulf of America” on an official document and some other gulf-adjacent states were considering doing the same, it was not clear how many others would follow Trump’s lead.

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum joked that if Trump went ahead with the renaming, her country would rename North America “Mexican America.” On Tuesday, she toned it down: “For us and for the entire world it will continue to be called the Gulf of Mexico.”

The politics of maps are undeniable

Map lines are inherently political. After all, they’re representations of the places that are important to human beings — and those priorities can be delicate and contentious, even more so in a globalized world where people from many nations share the same information sources.

“Denali” is the mountain’s preferred name for Alaska Natives, while “McKinley” is a tribute to President William McKinley, initiated in the late 19th century by a gold prospector. And there’s no agreed-upon scheme to name boundaries and features across the Earth. China sees Taiwan as its own territory, and the countries surrounding what the United States calls the South China Sea have multiple names for the same body of water.

The Persian Gulf has been widely known by that name since the 16th century, although usage of “Gulf” and “Arabian Gulf” is dominant in many countries in the Middle East. The government of Iran — formerly Persia — threatened to sue Google in 2012 over the company’s decision not to label the body of water at all on its maps. Many Arab countries don’t recognize Israel and instead call it Palestine. And in many official releases, Israel calls the occupied West Bank by its biblical name, “Judea and Samaria.”

Americans and Mexicans diverge on what to call another key body of water, the river that forms the border between Texas and the Mexican states of Chihuahua, Coahuila, Nuevo Leon and Tamaulipas. Americans call it the Rio Grande; Mexicans call it the Rio Bravo.

Trump’s executive order — titled “Restoring Names That Honor American Greatness” — concludes thusly: “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. The naming of our national treasures, including breathtaking natural wonders and historic works of art, should honor the contributions of visionary and patriotic Americans in our Nation’s rich past.”

But what to call the gulf with the 3,700-mile coastline?

“It is, I suppose, an internationally recognized sea, but (to be honest), a situation like this has never come up before so I need to confirm the appropriate convention,” said Peter Bellerby, who said he was talking over the issue with the cartographers at his London company, Bellerby & Co. Globemakers. “If, for instance, he wanted to change the Atlantic Ocean to the American Ocean, we would probably just ignore it.”

For some, it’s decision time

As of Wednesday night, map applications for Google and Apple still called the mountain and the gulf by their old names. Spokespersons for those platforms did not immediately respond to emailed questions.

A spokesperson for National Geographic, one of the most prominent map makers in the U.S., said this week that the company does not comment on individual cases and referred questions to a statement on its web site, which reads in part that it “strives to be apolitical, to consult multiple authoritative sources, and to make independent decisions based on extensive research.” National Geographic also has a policy of including explanatory notes for place names in dispute, citing as an example a body of water between Japan and the Korean peninsula, referred to as the Sea of Japan by the Japanese and the East Sea by Koreans.

In discussion on social media, one thread noted that the Sears Tower in Chicago was renamed the Willis Tower in 2009, though it’s still commonly known by its original moniker. Pennsylvania’s capital, Harrisburg, renamed its Market Street to Martin Luther King Boulevard and then switched back to Market Street several years later — with loud complaints both times. In 2017, New York’s Tappan Zee Bridge was renamed for the late Gov. Mario Cuomo to great controversy. The new name appears on maps, but “no one calls it that,” noted another user.

“Are we going to start teaching this as the name of the body of water?” asked one Reddit poster on Tuesday.

“I guess you can tell students that SOME PEOPLE want to rename this body of water the Gulf of America, but everyone else in the world calls it the Gulf of Mexico,” came one answer. “Cover all your bases — they know the reality-based name, but also the wannabe name as well.”

Wrote another user: “I’ll call it the Gulf of America when I’m forced to call the Tappan Zee the Mario Cuomo Bridge, which is to say never.”

Lifestyle

A snowy owl named Ghost eats a frozen rat at the Bird Treatment and Learning Center on Feb. 6, 2025...

Associated Press

Why people are naming bugs, rats and cats after their exes this Valentine’s Day

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — Feel like dissing instead of kissing your former lover this Valentine’s Day? Think your ex is more like a rat than a prince? Do you believe your former paramour should never procreate? Animal shelters and zoos around the country are encouraging little cathartic avenues for revenge this holiday — and raising […]

6 hours ago

Cartons of eggs sit inside cooler at Norma's Sweets Bakery Tuesday, Feb. 11, 2025, in New Orleans. ...

Associated Press

US eggs prices hit a record high of $4.95 and are likely to keep climbing

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Egg prices reached a record high in the U.S. last month, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Wednesday. The latest monthly consumer price index confirmed what consumers, bakers and food companies already knew: an ongoing bird flu outbreak that began in 2022 are making eggs terribly expensive right now. The average […]

17 hours ago

Associated Press

Martyrs? Bacchanalia? Chaucer? Delving into the murky origins of Valentine’s Day

Bearing cards, flowers, chocolates and poetry, lovers have always swooned on Valentine’s Day as cherubs circled overhead. Right? Or is the history darker, marked by Roman bacchanalia, martyrs and lies? Innumerable legends claim to explain the origins of Valentine’s Day, but as is the case with legends, they leave many questions unanswered. Here are a […]

22 hours ago

Angelo Medina of Chimayo who along with his wife Vicki brought their lowrider 1987 Pontiac Grand Pr...

Associated Press

New Mexico celebrates hydraulics and heritage with lowrider car holiday

SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — State lawmakers are embracing New Mexico’s time-honored culture of transforming customized lowrider cars into rolling canvases of artistic expression and a source of community pride. House and Senate lawmakers designated Tuesday as Lowrider Day at the state Capitol, marked by celebrations of Latino tradition and history. Proposed legislation would go […]

2 days ago

FILE - This Oct. 24, 2016 file photo shows dollar bills in New York. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan, File)...

Associated Press

4 financial tasks you shouldn’t put off

You’ve probably got one or two financial jobs on your to-do list that you were too busy to get to or perceived as boring administrative work. Here are some tasks that a) frequently fall by the wayside and b) don’t take a lot of time to rectify. Pain point 1: Contributing to an IRA For […]

2 days ago

Egg cartons for sale are displayed at a grocery store, Friday, Feb. 7, 2025 in Grosse Pointe, Mich....

Associated Press

As egg prices continue to soar, grocers like Trader Joe’s limit how many cartons customers can buy

NEW YORK (AP) — Trader Joe’s and other grocers are limiting the number of eggs customers can buy across the U.S., citing limited supply caused by the ongoing bird flu outbreak. Trader Joe’s is capping purchases to one carton per customer each day, the Monrovia, California-based chain confirmed. That limit applies to all of Trader […]

2 days ago

The Gulf of Whatnow? Mapmakers grapple with Trump’s geographic renaming plans