Google Maps users may notice a pretty dramatic change the next time they look toward the Great Lakes. Lake Ontario is becoming Lake America… on Google’s maps for Americans, at least.
Google says the U.S. Geographic Names Information System, better known as GNIS, has formally changed the name of Lake Ontario to Lake America. Since Google relies on official government sources when determining geographic names, the company has started updating Google Maps to reflect the change.
The result is a strange situation where the same lake will have different names depending on where you happen to be using Google Maps. People in the United States will see “Lake America,” while users in Canada will continue seeing “Lake Ontario.” People outside of the United States and Canada will see both names.
This isn’t Google independently deciding that Lake Ontario needed a new identity. President Donald Trump signed an executive order directing the federal government to rename the body of water Lake America. The administration argues that the lake has played an important role in American exploration, commerce, defense, and settlement.
GNIS subsequently adopted the new name. That matters to Google because the company uses GNIS as its official government source for geographic names in the United States.
Google has dealt with this sort of controversy before. Following the federal government’s renaming of the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America, Google Maps began displaying Gulf of America to users in the United States while retaining Gulf of Mexico for users in Mexico. People elsewhere could see both names.
The Lake America situation follows essentially the same playbook. Google isn’t trying to settle an international argument over what the lake should be called. Instead, Maps displays the name recognized by the relevant government depending on where the user is located.
Of course, that technical explanation probably won’t make the change any less controversial. Lake Ontario is one of the five Great Lakes, and its existing name has been used for centuries. Canada isn’t suddenly going to start calling it Lake America simply because the United States government decided to make a change.
That’s what makes Google’s implementation particularly interesting. Two people can open Google Maps, look at the exact same body of water, and see different names simply because one is in New York and the other is across the border in Ontario.
An executive order or government database update can feel somewhat abstract, but Google Maps puts the decision directly in front of millions of people. Every road trip, geography search, weather check, and casual Maps exploration has the potential to reinforce the new name.
Whether Americans will actually start saying “Lake America” in everyday conversation is another matter entirely. Changing a database is easy. Changing a name that people have used for generations could prove much harder.
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