Apple has relabelled Lake Ontario to “Lake America” for US users of its Maps app, following competitor Google days after President Donald Trump ordered a new name for the body of water amid his escalating trade war with Canada.
As of Wednesday morning, Apple Maps displayed “Lake America” for US users looking at the lake that sits between the state of New York and Canada’s Ontario province. Users outside of the US still saw the Lake Ontario name.
Apple did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Wednesday. Earlier this week, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum told Fox that Trump had reached out to the company “directly” about the change.
The president declared the new “Lake America” name last week — marking one of the latest provocations during his trade war with Canada that is now hiking tariffs on both sides of the border. His executive order on Friday directed the Interior Department to update the lake’s name in the US geographic naming service.
Google Maps rolled out the change over the weekend, citing Trump’s order and its already-established practice of using names assigned by the US Geographic Names Information System (or GNIS).
“People using Maps in the US will see Lake America,’ those in Canada will continue to see Lake Ontario,’ and those outside of the US and Canada will see both names,” Google said in a brief statement on Saturday, reiterating that such updates “follow our long-standing policy for bodies of water with names that vary from country to country.”
Trump cannot force Canada to also change the name of Lake Ontario. And America’s northern neighbours quickly panned the idea.
“It’s Lake Ontario to Canadians and the rest of the world. Now and forever,” Ontario Premier Doug Ford wrote on social media Friday.
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney also rejected the move last week, invoking the lake’s Indigenous roots and noting that the name predates both the Canadian Confederation and the US Declaration of Independence. The name Lake Ontario comes from the Huron Indigenous people’s word “oniatari:io,” which means “lake of shining waters.”
This isn’t the first time Trump has moved to rename water spanning beyond US borders. Last year, Trump ordered that the Gulf of Mexico be renamed the Gulf of America — and both Apple and Google later updated the name on their maps in the US.
But not all map providers have followed suit. MapQuest, in particular, has declared it won’t be changing Lake Ontario’s label — and gave users the option to name the lake “whatever you want” through a separate online tool. Both the Lake Ontario and Gulf of Mexico names still appear as default on its platform.
