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The 'OG' online map platform, MapQuest, says it won't change the name of Lake Ontario
(www.businessinsider.com)
this post was submitted on 28 Aug 2026
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Again, not that they won't follow, it's that the name hasn't changed. Trump can do what he likes and he can probably force the executive branch to use the name in official documentation, but other than that this stunt means nothing
The name of something is not an inherent property of that thing. All names are assigned.
The distinction is that before Trump decided to hijack it for political purposes, the US government put a lot of thought and work into official names.
For big things like the gulf of Mexico, or lake Ontario, there shouldn't be a lot of confusion. But what about the little creek by your house? A series of inlets on a coastline? What if you have dozens of places with the same name; how do you differentiate? What if you have regional local names that differ from the name that outsiders use? What if you have competing names in general parlance? When you type it into a gps, where will it send you?
The U.S. Board of Geographical Names handled all these issues and more, and had been a trusted authority on place names, that mapmakers, businesses, and other governments all trusted to do a good job.
Still today, you can check out the GNIS and find out all kinds of cool stuff. Try searching for "Sugarloaf" to find all the mountains people named after a common thing, or "Denali" or "Washington"; you can find a lot of cool stuff on here, including alternate names for places.
It is disgusting that the republicans are destroying years and years of slowly building trust and doing good work that helps all Americans because (check notes) it would be funny if he decreed the name were stupider?
A rose by any other name would smell as sweet.
Ok?
And Google are a bunch of evil techdicks so of course they suck up to the orange fuhrer.
Hi, I work in the map industry. We generally don't get to decide what names to use for features. We apply what the local official name is (to simplify). That's why if you're in country A, feature X might be named something different than if you're in country B. You can imagine this would (and has) caused many conflicts around the world if we didn't display the local official name. (Switch your region via VPN and you can see this in action)
If Google renamed it to Gulf of America, no Google didn't, not really ... They just inserted the new official name for that feature according to GNIS.
Meaning if I visit the lake they won't change all the signage?
Well I mean I can guarantee they won't be changed around some parts of it lol. What kind of dumbass question is this? You think changing a sign makes something real?
For official matters, yes.
Look I'm tired of all these trans waters. I'm going to use whatever name that comes to me first and if the body of water asks me to use a different name, I'll change it.
Edit to put /s
What official matters? There is undoubtedly now be some official documentation with this name on it. There will be lots that isn't.
Let me ask you then. Personally in your view what is the name of that lake
You should ask a kid that when they grow up with Gulf of America and Lake America or wherever we’re at now after being on their phones for their entire lives, not people that have grown up with the entirely different name and old name.
Despite the miseducation of American youth. The name would still be lake ontario