Apple has updated the name of Lake Ontario to Lake America on its Apple Maps website following President Donald Trump’s executive order renaming the lake. This change by Apple on Tuesday came after Alphabet made a similar adjustment for U.S. users on Google Maps over the weekend.
According to Apple, users in the U.S. will now see the label “Lake America” due to the alteration in the U.S. Geographic Names Information System. U.S. Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum mentioned in an interview with Fox Business that Trump had directly contacted Apple regarding the renaming.
While users in Canada will still see Lake Ontario, individuals in other parts of the world will see both names, a strategy Apple previously employed after Trump renamed the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America.
The adjustment by Google caused some confusion in Canada, with certain entities briefly displaying maps with the Lake America name on their websites over the weekend. The renaming actions highlight how U.S. tech companies are being entangled in geopolitical conflicts as they navigate pressure from the Trump administration to adhere to executive orders that have been opposed by allies and international entities.
Trump’s executive order only applies to U.S. federal usage of Lake Ontario and does not dictate what Canada, international bodies, or other organizations refer to the lake as. A recent Reuters/Ipsos poll revealed that a majority of Americans disapprove of Trump’s decisions to increase tariffs on Canadian imports and rename Lake Ontario as Lake America.
Following Trump’s order, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney and New York Governor Kathy Hochul, a Democrat, swiftly stated they would not be adopting the new name, emphasizing the historical significance of the existing name, which dates back over 400 years. New York shares a border with the lake on the U.S. side. Approximately 52% of Lake Ontario’s surface area is located in Canada, with the remainder in New York.
Since early 2025, Trump has made several remarks teasing Canada about potentially joining the U.S. as the 51st state, a notion that Canadian leaders have dismissed as absurd. In a similar move in January 2025, Trump also renamed the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America, prompting adjustments by both Google and Apple on their map applications for U.S. users.