A directive issued Thursday by the Trump administration seeks to rename Lake Ontario to Lake America. The executive order, signed by the President, instructs Secretary of the Interior David Bernhardt to take all appropriate actions to rename the lake, including updating the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS), the official repository for US geographic name information.
The move follows the collapse of trade negotiations between Canada and the United States. Google announced Saturday that its maps would display the name "Lake America" for US users in compliance with the GNIS update. Users in Canada will continue to see "Lake Ontario," while users globally will see the name listed as "Lake Ontario (Lake America)."
However, not all mapping services have agreed to the change. MapQuest, an American web mapping service established in 1996, stated Friday in a social media post that it would not alter the lake's name. The platform also introduced a tool allowing users to rename the lake to any name of their choosing and share their customized maps.
Following MapQuest's announcement that it would retain the "Lake Ontario" designation, the application rose to the top of the most-downloaded free applications on the Apple App Store in Canada as of Monday morning.
On Saturday, Ontario Premier Doug Ford unveiled a sign near the lakeshore displaying "Lake Ontario Now and Always" in both English and French. Speaking on Sunday, Ford stated, "No one's going to call it Lake of America. It's been Lake Ontario for hundreds of years. It's going to continue being Lake Ontario."