Apple Maps renamed Lake Ontario to “Lake America” for users in the United States, giving in to pressure from President Donald Trump, who issued an executive order changing the name of the Great Lake last week.
The change puts Apple alongside Google Maps, which made the same switch several days earlier.
Apple Maps follows Trump’s order on ‘Lake America’
Trump’s move to rename Lake Ontario came amid a sharp deterioration in U.S.-Canada relations, with the president accusing Canada of taking advantage of the United States in trade.
His executive order says the new name recognizes the lake as an important American resource and highlights U.S. investment in the Great Lakes, but Trump himself explicitly connected the change to his broader complaints about Canada.
Trump’s executive order from August 27 directs the U.S. government to rename Lake Ontario as Lake America, requiring the Interior Department and the U.S. Board on Geographic Names to update the federal Geographic Names Information System.
And Apple Maps now reflects that change for people using the service in the United States. Apple has not publicly explained its decision.
The move follows a similar change involving the Gulf of Mexico. After Trump ordered that body of water renamed the “Gulf of America” last year, Apple changed its Maps app to use the new name for U.S. users.
Trump reportedly contacted Apple directly about changing the name of Lake Ontario. Interior Secretary Doug Burgum said the president had reached out to the company as part of the effort to get the new name adopted.
Lake Ontario isn’t going by the same name everywhere
The name change is limited by location. Apple Maps users in Canada continue to see “Lake Ontario,” while users elsewhere can see both names.
That reflects the fact that the United States and Canada do not agree on the new name. Lake Ontario sits between New York and the Canadian province of Ontario, with roughly half of the lake in each country.
Canadian officials reject the U.S. name change. Ontario Premier Doug Ford has said the body of water remains Lake Ontario, while Prime Minister Mark Carney pointed to the lake’s long history and Indigenous origins.
Ed Hardy has been writing full-time about tech for 26 years, and using it for much longer than that. His intro to Apple was a Macintosh SE/30 (which he still has), but now he uses a 13-inch iPad Pro as his primary computer.
That’s because he’s a “tablet first” type of guy. Rather than use a Macbook, he connects a keyboard case to the iPad. And instead of a desktop Mac, he connects his tablet to a 27-inch display and full-size keyboard. (So don’t try to tell him that everyone has to use a Mac to be productive.)
Before coming to Cult of Mac, Ed wrote for NotebookReview, TabletPCReview and Brighthand, as well as other sites.
