Apple Maps changed the name of Lake Ontario to “Lake America” in accordance with President Trump’s recent executive order on the matter.
While Canada will continue to see “Lake Ontario,” American users and others will see both names. Apple’s move follows one taken by Google.
“Since we update Google Maps to reflect name changes in official government sources, which is GNIS for the U.S., people using Maps in the U.S. will see ‘Lake America,’ those in Canada will continue to see ‘Lake Ontario,’ and those outside of the U.S. and Canada will see both names,” Google said in addressing the changes. “These updates follow our long-standing policy for bodies of water with names that vary from country to country, and are starting to roll out now.”
Meanwhile, MapQuest said it would not be renaming the body of water. “We took the same approach we did with the Gulf of Mexico: be part of the conversation, and give people an app that keeps the names they’re familiar with,” Doug Berger, General Manager of MapQuest, said in a statement. “Hundreds of thousands of people signaled to us this weekend that we got it right, by downloading our app.”
According to President Trump’s executive order, the Lake has been critical to America’s “exploration, settlement, commerce, and defense,” as it “served as a critical artery for American trade, commerce, and military logistics, including the establishment in Oswego of a historic fort and the first United States port of call from the St. Lawrence Seaway, shipbuilding and naval operations during the War of 1812 at Sackets Harbor and other New York posts, and the movement of goods, settlers, and later industrial cargoes that linked the interior of the United States to eastern markets and the Atlantic.”
“In recognition of this flourishing economic resource and its critical importance to our Nation’s economy and its people, I am directing that the Lake officially be renamed as Lake America,” the order declares.
