President Donald Trump signed Executive Order 14172, Jan. 20, 2025. This order declared the renaming of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America in all United States (U.S.) federal records.
As such, the U.S. Board on Geographic Names has updated its records of the oceanic basin to the Gulf of America.
Following suit, many maps, including Google Maps and Apple Maps, have updated their descriptions based on user location. U.S. users now see it as the “Gulf of America,” Mexican users still see “Gulf of Mexico” and international users may see either or both names.
Google’s main reasoning is that it strives to provide up-to-date and accurate information that can help users accurately navigate. They also claim that changing it to the “Gulf of America” would match with official government sources as well.
In response, Mexico has argued against the name changes. They claim that the name changes breach their sovereignty as they hold a larger percentage of the Gulf’s water. Also, Mexico claims that the name change violates the United Nations’ acceptance of the “Gulf of Mexico,” which dates back to 1607.
President of Mexico, Claudia Sheinbaum, has also threatened to sue Google because of their name change. She claims that the naming itself is incorrect because the U.S. changed the name for it’s territory which only extends 22 nautical miles from the coast and not the entire Gulf. Therefore, referencing the name should only be applied to the marine area that falls under U.S. jurisdiction. Going beyond that and naming it entirely for America would call for necessary legal actions.
Although the US and Mexico are economically intertwined through the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, these rising tensions over the Gulf’s name creates more stress between them. Some areas of the nation’s relationships that could be impacted are international negotiations and tourism.
While Mexico continues to clash against the name change, many international countries have decided to not accept the new “Gulf of America,” and will instead continue to call it the “Gulf of Mexico.” These countries include the United Kingdom, Canada, France, Spain, Germany and Brazil. The renaming serves as a reminder of how significant international recognition and national boundaries are.
