Trade negotiations between the United States and Canada broke down last week, triggering a new wave of tariffs and retaliatory duties. On Thursday, US President Donald Trump revived a familiar tactic by signing an executive order that renames Lake Ontario “Lake America.”
The lake spans the US-Canada border and has historically taken its name from the Canadian province of Ontario. Under the new order, however, the US government is moving to recognize the body of water as Lake America. While official US maps have not yet been fully updated, Google Maps has already begun displaying the proposed name for users in the United States.
Google started rolling out the change to US users on Saturday. In a Google Maps update, the company explained that its mapping service follows the National Geographic Names Information System (GNIS). That policy suggests Google is applying the federal database’s updated naming convention to Lake Ontario across its US-facing maps.
Google Maps has adopted the Lake America name even faster than the US government’s official mapping systems. Although the GNIS database now lists the renamed lake, the USGS geographic names record indicates that the base map layer still uses Lake Ontario, the internationally recognized name. A notice on the USGS-operated website says updates to official maps are still pending.
Source: arstechnica.com