Apple has updated its Apple Maps on the web, renaming Lake Ontario to Lake America in alignment with a recent executive order issued by U.S. President Donald Trump. The adjustment made by Apple on Tuesday mirrors a similar alteration by Alphabet on Google Maps for U.S. users over the weekend. The change will be visible to U.S. users as “Lake America” following an update to the U.S. Geographic Names Information System.
Users accessing the maps from Canada will still see Lake Ontario, while global users will see both names displayed, a strategy previously implemented by Apple when Trump renamed the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America. Google’s modification caused temporary confusion in Canada, with some entities briefly displaying maps with the Lake America designation on their websites.
The shift in names reflects how U.S. tech firms are being entangled in geopolitical disputes amid pressure from the Trump administration to comply with executive orders that international bodies and allies have rejected. The executive order concerning Lake Ontario, one of the Great Lakes of North America, pertains to U.S. federal usage and does not dictate the naming conventions used by Canada, international entities, or other organizations to refer to the lake.
In response to Trump’s actions, a majority of Americans oppose the recent tax hikes on Canadian imports and the renaming of Lake Ontario to Lake America, as per a new Reuters/Ipsos poll. Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney and New York Governor Kathy Hochul swiftly announced that they would maintain the traditional name, which has been in use for over 400 years. New York shares a border with Lake Ontario on the U.S. side, with approximately 52% of the lake’s surface area lying within Canada and the remainder in New York.
Trump’s trend of provocations toward Canada includes his repeated hints since early 2025 about Canada becoming the 51st U.S. state, an idea dismissed by Canadian leaders as absurd. In a similar vein, Trump had earlier renamed the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America in January 2025, prompting Google and Apple to update their mapping services accordingly for U.S. users.