Apple has changed the name of Lake Ontario to “Lake America” for Apple Maps users in the United States, following a similar update by Google. The change comes less than a week after President Donald Trump signed an executive order directing federal agencies to adopt the new name.
Apple Maps users in Canada will continue to see Lake Ontario, while users outside the United States and Canada will see both names. Apple did not publicly explain its naming policy or respond to a request for comment about the change.
Apple Follows New U.S. Geographic Naming
Trump signed the executive order on August 27, giving the Interior Department 30 days to update federal geographic databases. The order states that the lake should be renamed in recognition of its economic importance to the United States.
Google adopted the new name before Apple after the U.S. Geographic Names Information System updated its records. In an official Maps announcement, Google said users in the United States would see Lake America, Canadian users would continue to see Lake Ontario, and users elsewhere would see both names.
Google said the approach follows its existing policy of reflecting names recorded by official government sources. Apple and Google used a similar regional naming system last year after the United States renamed the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America.
MapQuest Keeps the Lake Ontario Name
MapQuest has taken a different position and continues to display Lake Ontario. The company said it preferred to retain the name familiar to users and also declined to change the Gulf of Mexico name last year.
That decision coincided with a sharp increase in MapQuest downloads. The service reached the No. 1 position among navigation apps in the U.S. App Store after receiving hundreds of thousands of new downloads, according to the company and third-party data reported by TechCrunch.
By September 1, MapQuest had also reached the top position in the U.S. App Store’s overall app rankings and No. 6 across apps and games on Google Play, according to the latest report. The company responded to Apple’s change with a post on X showing an apple GIF alongside the words “Them Too.”
The naming changes come during strained U.S.-Canada relations following the breakdown of trade talks between the two countries. Canada continues to recognize the body of water as Lake Ontario.
Featured image credits: Wikimedia Commons
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