Trump says he’s renaming Gulf of Mexico to ‘Gulf of America’
President-elect Donald Trump told reporters he plans to rename the Gulf of Mexico the “Gulf of America.”
President Trump signed an executive order on Monday requiring the federal government to change the name of the Gulf of Mexico to the “Gulf of America” on official maps – a change that could take months to enact and may or may not be immediately reflected on the digital maps Americans use daily.
“The Gulf of America – which has a beautiful ring,” Trump said at a news conference at Mar-a-Lago on January 7. “The Gulf of America, what a beautiful name and it’s appropriate.”
The Gulf of Mexico has been so named at least since the late 1600s, when it was used to describe the body of water that’s bordered to the north by the United States’ southern coast, from Texas to Florida. It also wraps around Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula.
It is the ninth largest body of water in the world, according to the National Parks Service.
Roughly the size of Alaska, it covers more than 615,000 square miles and is almost a thousand miles wide east to west and 660 miles wide north to south.
The Gulf’s shoreline is about 3,540 miles ‒ more than half of it bordering Mexico’s coast, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, although that does not account for the myriad bays and inlets.
According to federal officials, over the last six centuries, the gulf also been known as the Golfo de Nueva España (The Gulf of New Spain) and Mar Di Florida (the Florida Sea), among others, reflecting its long-contested history between France, Spain and other European countries as they colonized the New World.
Who’s in charge of renaming the Gulf?
Renaming geographical place names is the work the U.S. Board on Geographic Names. The federal office has the power to rename geographic places within the United States.
“The BGN is responsible by law for standardizing geographic names throughout the federal government and discourages name changes unless there is a compelling reason,” the Board of Geographic Names says on its website. “Further, changing an existing name merely to correct or re-establish historical usage should not be a primary reason to change a name.”
Those changes would not necessarily be binding on the states bordering the gulf or for other countries. But at least one state has already embraced it.
In a state of emergency declaration Tuesday about cold weather there, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis said, “Whereas an area of low pressure moving across the Gulf of America, interacting with Arctic air, will bring widespread impactful weather to North Florida beginning Tuesday.”
Would digital maps change?
Google maps is the most widely used digital navigation app in the United States, according to Statista. It’s followed by Waze, which is also owned by Alphabet, Google’s parent company.
It isn’t yet clear what name American users of either digital navigation app will see. A request for a fix to the Google Maps site made Tuesday afternoon got this response from another user, “This is an executive decision made only a few hours ago. It is perhaps a bit premature to start labelling the old name as incorrect.”
For Google Earth, the company’s program that offers a three dimensional representation of Earth using satellite imagery, the long-time practice has been to not choose sides in international geopolitical disputes but instead implement a uniform policy of Primary Local Usage.
Under this policy, the English Google Earth displays the primary local name given to bodies of water by the sovereign nations that border it. If all bordering countries agree on the name, then the common single name is displayed. For example, “Caribbean Sea” in English, “Mar Caribe” in Spanish, etc.
“But if different countries dispute the proper name for a body of water, our policy is to display both names, with each label placed closer to the country or countries that use it,” the site says.
Whether this policy will also apply to Google Maps and Waze is not clear. An email to Google’s media contact was not immediately answered. As of Tuesday afternoon, Gulf of Mexico was still in use on Google Maps.
Apple Maps had also not changed the name of the Gulf as of Tuesday afternoon.
Do other countries have to call it the Gulf of America?
While the United States can change the name by which the gulf is known, other countries aren’t required to use it.
Multiple international bodies help mediate those discrepancies, including the United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names.
“As fundamental to the need for global standardization of geographical names, UNGEGN promotes the recording of locally-used names reflecting the languages and traditions of a country,” the organization says on its website.
“…Geographers, linguists, cartographers and planners are among those specialists who develop the tools, harness the technology, provide the outreach, and share the belief that accurate and consistent use of a common framework of geographical names can offer considerable benefits to the world.”
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo is having none of it. At a news conference on January 8, she suggested that the United States ought to be renamed “Mexican America.”
Sheinbaum Pardo opened the news conference in Mexico City with a 17th Century map of North and South America as a backdrop.
“Obviously the Gulf of Mexico is recognized by the United Nations… but why don’t we call this ‘Mexican America’?” she said, pointing to an area on the map that would now correspond to the United States.
Sheinbaum Pardo projected a map authored in 1607 that labels a rough drawing of North America as “America Mexicana,” or Mexican America, and also names the Gulf of Mexico, already at the time a key maritime navigational reference.
Sheinbaum Pardo also displayed a separate, 19th-century map showing the immense territory that previously belonged to Mexico, including what are today roughly the U.S. states of California, Nevada, Utah, Arizona and New Mexico.
How fast could these names change?
Changes created under the “Restoring Names That Honor American Greatness” executive order should go into effect within 30 days, according to the executive order’s text.
Under normal circumstances, it takes at least six months to rename a place in the United States, according to the Board of Geographic Names. That allows time for consultation with states, tribes, mapmakers and other interested parties.
Are there risks to changing place names?
For navigation purposes, consistency in naming is vital. That’s why the federal government’s Board on Geographic Names mandates that every federal agency use its database, known as the Geographic Names Information System. The federal system contains more than a million named places in the United States.The United Nations group plays a similar role at the international level, along with the International Hydrographic Organization and the International Maritime Organization.
There’s also a broader social conversation about names happening: Studies have shown that as European colonizers renamed geographic features around the world, it diminished and in some cases erased the history of indigenous people who had been living there first.
“Power was inscribed onto the landscape through place names which helped to generate a sense of belonging for the coloniser and, ultimately, was a tool for exerting control over social and physical environments,” Beth Williamson of the University of London wrote in a 2023 study.
Gene Tucker, a history professor at Temple College in Texas, said changing place names often evokes unexpectedly emotional responses. He cited the 2023 renaming of the Army post in his hometown of Killeen, Texas, to Fort Cavazos, a change that still irks his parents.
“To rename a place, it hurts a lot of people’s feelings,” said Tucker, who did his PhD on Spanish-American place names and is a member of the Texas Map Society. “If you’re changing the name of the place I grew up next to, you’re changing my history and so you’re changing me. It’s like telling us that everything about us is wrong.”
Alaska’s Mount Denali also to get new name.
Another portion of Trump’s executive order changes the name of Alaska’s Mount Denali back to Mount McKinley.
In 2015, then-President Barack Obama changed the name of Mount McKinley in Alaska to Denali, a local Native American name meaning “the High One” in Athabascan.
The naming of the nation’s tallest peak has been controversial at least as far back to 1916, according to the National Parks Service.
Many in Alaska supported use of the long-time local name. Ohio, where William McKinley, the country’s 25th president, was from, had opposed the change.
Author :
Publish date : 2025-01-21 05:38:00
Copyright for syndicated content belongs to the linked Source.
—-
Author : theamericannews
Publish date : 2025-01-21 19:54:13
Copyright for syndicated content belongs to the linked Source.