The move comes after President Donald Trump signed an executive order last week to change the name.
On Friday, the Interior Department said it had made the change and is working to update the nomenclature in the Geographic Names Information System.
Trump’s executive order also reverts the name of North America’s tallest peak, Denali in Alaska, back to Mount McKinley. Google said this name change will also be reflected.
Google regularly applies localized naming conventionsto geographical features subject to disputes in many parts of the world. People in different countries can be given different results when they pull up Google Maps.
While in South Korea, Google Maps shows the East Sea as the name of the body of water between the Koreas and Japan, and the name appears as the Sea of Japan (East Sea) for users outside the country.
Japan and South Korea claim different provenance for their assertions.
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With more than 1 billion monthly users, Google Maps has a significant impact on how people view or interact with the world, whether it is providing business reviews or labeling places.
But its decision-making on maps is often shrouded in secrecy and is influenced by history and local laws, as well as the shifting whims of diplomats, policymakers and its own executives, The Washington Post reported in 2020.
Google did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The Gulf of Mexico, a 218,000-square-mile oceanic basin connected to the Caribbean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean, spans the eastern coast of Mexico and the southeastern coast of the United States to the western end of Cuba. European explorers and mapmakers have used the name Gulf of Mexico for at least 400 years.
“We’re going to be changing the name of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America,” Trump said at a news conference earlier this month. “… What a beautiful name, and it’s appropriate.” He appeared to link the decision to long-standing frustrations over Mexico’s approach to immigration and drug trafficking.
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum tooka dig at Trump’s proposal soon after, according to the Associated Press.
During a news briefing, she pondered whether North America should be renamed “Mexican America,” citing a founding document from 1814, preceding Mexico’s constitution, that referred to it by that name.
“That sounds nice, no?” she added.
