Apple has altered the designation of Lake Ontario to Lake America on the online version of Apple Maps after an executive order by U.S. President Donald Trump. This adjustment by Apple on Tuesday came subsequent to Alphabet’s decision to rename the lake on Google Maps for U.S. users over the weekend.
According to Apple, users in the United States will now see the name “Lake America” following the modification in the U.S. Geographic Names Information System. U.S. Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum disclosed to Fox Business that Trump had directly contacted Apple regarding the renaming.
For Canadian users, Lake Ontario will remain the same, while users globally will observe both names, mirroring the approach Apple took when the Gulf of Mexico was renamed the Gulf of America by Trump.
The change made by Google caused some confusion in Canada as several entities briefly displayed maps with the Lake America name on their websites. This alteration illustrates how U.S. tech companies are being entangled in geopolitical disputes as they face pressure from the Trump administration to adhere to executive orders that allies and international entities have opposed.
The executive order by Trump only applies to U.S. federal usage of Lake Ontario, one of the Great Lakes of North America, and does not dictate how Canada, international bodies, or other organizations refer to the lake. A poll by Reuters/Ipsos revealed that a majority of Americans disagree with Trump’s recent actions, including the renaming of Lake Ontario to Lake America.
Shortly after the executive order, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney and New York Governor Kathy Hochul, a Democrat, declared that they would retain the original name, which has been in use for over 400 years. New York shares a border with the lake on the U.S. side, with approximately 52% of Lake Ontario’s surface area located in Canada.
Since early 2025, Trump has repeatedly teased Canada about becoming the 51st U.S. state, a notion dismissed by Canadian officials as absurd. Trump previously ordered the renaming of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America in January 2025, prompting both Google and Apple to update their map applications for U.S. users accordingly.
