The body of water previously known in the U.S. as the Gulf of Mexico—and still known as that in many other parts of the world—will henceforth be labeled as “Gulf of America” for U.S. users of Apple Maps.
The jingoistic decision to rename the gulf was made by President Donald Trump on January 20 amid a slew of executive orders. However, the president’s powers to rename geographic features are limited. He is able merely to direct federal agencies to adopt the new name, while official international usage lies outside his purview, and individuals and companies throughout the world can continue to call the gulf whatever they like.
Under such circumstances, the proprietors of major mapping services may be unsure how to proceed. Apple Maps, Google Maps, MapQuest and so on have millions of overseas users who will be baffled and dismayed by such a change and are not bound to follow the president’s whim when applying geographic labels. At the same time, U.S.-based corporations are understandably reluctant to alienate either the governing party or the large sections of the populace who voted for it.
Ideally tech giants would love to stay out of political squabbles entirely and avoid offending anyone. One approach would be to simply have the names on digital maps reflect data provided by an official body: follow, for example, the usage of the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and its Geographic Names Information Service (GNIS). On that basis, it was understood that Apple Maps and Google Maps wouldn’t change the name of the gulf until the GNIS did so first, which could take months.
Well, things seem to have sped up. The GNIS has been updated to reflect the president’s order, and earlier this week Google responded by changing the label in Google Maps. Users of the service in the U.S. now see the label “Gulf of America,” while users in Mexico see “Gulf of Mexico.” Everyone else sees the old name with the new name in brackets. (If that seems like contemptible fence-sitting, do note that it isn’t unprecedented. Mapping services have long done a similar balancing act for places like Taiwan.)
David Price / Foundry
While MapQuest and Bing Maps have not changed the label at time of writing, Apple quickly followed Google’s and the GNIS’s lead and switched to the usage “Gulf of America” for U.S. users, as first spotted by Bloomberg. Sources report, however, that Cupertino is embracing the new name more fully than Google, and at some point in the future intends to make the change for international users too. For now, here in the U.K., a search for “Gulf of America” takes me to the place in question but still shows a label referencing Mexico.
An interesting wrinkle is that, while the GNIS has updated its database, the USGS maps are still catching up. These still say Gulf of Mexico, albeit with a note at the top of the page saying “Per Secretarial Order 3423, the Gulf of Mexico has been renamed to the Gulf of America. The display map for the Gazetteer application is in the process of being updated to reflect this name change.” It seems that Google and Apple have both rushed to follow Trump’s orders quicker than his own federal agencies. Or perhaps they simply have more advanced mapping systems.
David Price / Foundry
Such enthusiastic compliance may be disappointing from a company widely perceived to embody progressive values, but nobody can be surprised. Tim Cook contributed $1 million of his personal fortune to Trump’s inauguration fund and appeared in several photos as an attendee of the inauguration. He’s not about to let ideological differences sour Apple’s relationship with the White House and put its prospects in jeopardy, especially when the threat of tariffs looms over everything Apple sells. And let’s not forget, the current regime is not above taking petty revenge on those who oppose even its smallest edicts.
