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The President of the United Stated doesn’t actually have the authority to tell anyone besides the executive branch what to name geographic places. So the order
by mikeocool 22d ago
The President of the United Stated doesn’t actually have the authority to tell anyone besides the executive branch what to name geographic places. So the order only forces official US government maps created by USGS and the like to be updated. Other maps can choose to update if they want to.
Open Street Map tends to reserve the “name” tag for what things are commonly called by the local community. It appears that for the Lake Ontario and The Gulf of Mexico they’ve added an “official_name:US” tag to capture the names in the executive orders.
- gmiller123456 22d agoEven though he can't tell others to follow them, they often choose to do so anyway. E.g. Google Maps displays the Gulf of America.
- tescreal 22d agoDid they adopt the petty naming spat over Lake Ontario^WAmerica?
- gmiller123456 21d agoNot yet, but I assume they will. They said they only ever show the official names designated by the country in question. Probably because a lot of countries disagree on borders as well as names and get really upset with people who get it wrong.
- kenmacd 22d agoIt doesn't for me (although it does include it in parentheses after the real name), so I'm going to hope this is only an 'only in the US' change.
- beardyw 22d agoHere in the UK it still says Ontario. Interesting that he changed the name to that of the entire continent, so Mexicans and Venezuelans can feel part of it.
- mc32 20d agoClose. But it's not (re)named Lake Americas. Remember, there are two continents, North America and South America. It's not one continent; however, jointly they can be called The Americas.
- beardyw 20d agoRefering to the whole as America is a thing. Perhaps not in America (whatever that means). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Americas https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Americas
- mc32 20d agoSure, and referring to the whole of the UK as England is also a thing. It’s confusing but people are people. Or as they say in some parts of “England” it’s queer as folk.
- beardyw 19d agoIf you follow the link there are dictionary entries. It's not stupidity, it's completely reasonable. Amerigo Vespucci didn't name the USA, he named the entire continent. "Britain" is widely used to refer to the UK, but Great Britain is the physical land mass which excludes Northern Ireland, so there is rarely confusion.
- femto 21d agoIt's geofenced. https://blog.google/products-and-platforms/products/maps/united-states-geographic-name-change-feb-2025/ https://blog.google/products-and-platforms/products/maps/uni...
- AdamH12113 21d agoApple Maps does as well. It's sad that they're kowtowing to Trump in such a ridiculous way.