Lake America
Created by executive order, August 27, 2026
- Used by
- Federal agencies: maps, contracts, documents, communications
- Required for
- Federal government usage only
- New York's position
- Not adopted
- Canada's position
- Not adopted
Executive order, signed August 27, 2026
Lake Ontario (Lake America): The Renaming, Explained
Official title: “Honoring the American History of the Great Lakes and Renaming Lake Ontario as Lake America.”
President Trump signed an executive order directing federal agencies to refer to Lake Ontario as Lake America on federal maps, contracts, and communications. The order does not bind New York State, Canada, or private companies. Neither New York nor Canada has adopted the new name.
What actually changed
Lake Ontario
Lake America
Federal use only
- Signed
- 2026-08-27
- Implements via
- DOI / Board on Geographic Names
- Deadline
- ~2026-09-26
- Binds
- Federal agencies
- New York
- Not adopted
- Canada
- Not adopted
What the order does
Federal paperwork only, not the lake itself
The order tells the federal government what to call the lake. It does not rename it for anyone else.
| Detail | Fact |
|---|---|
| Signed | August 27, 2026, by President Trump |
| Implementing official | Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum, through the U.S. Board on Geographic Names |
| Deadline | 30 days from signing, or by around September 26, 2026, to update the federal Geographic Names Information System (GNIS) |
| Legal scope | Federal agency maps, contracts, documents, and communications only |
| Not covered | New York State, Canada, and private companies are all free to keep using Lake Ontario |
| Stated rationale | The order ties the change to the trade dispute with Canada and to a claim that the United States holds the deepest, majority portion of the lake's volume |
| As of Aug 28, 2026 | The federal GNIS database had not yet been confirmed updated; the 30 day window was still open |
Every row above traces to a source in the endnotes below. Nothing on this page is estimated or invented.
Instrument readings
Live lake conditions
This strip reads from the same lake-data feed as the flagship map, at /api/conditions. Readings below show “--” until that feed connects.
Water Temp
--°F
NDBC buoy, source pending
Live reading temporarily unavailable.
Water Level
--ft IGLD85
NOAA CO-OPS / Army Corps
Live reading temporarily unavailable.
Wave Height
--ft
Open-lake marine forecast
Buoy 45012 does not report wave height.
Wind
--kts
NWS open-lake marine zone
Live reading temporarily unavailable.
Ice Cover
Ice cover data is not yet available.
Full layer set (temperature, levels, waves, webcams, beaches, depth, marinas, charters) lives on the map.
See full conditions on lakeamericamap.com →
Side by side
Both names, and who actually uses each one
One lake, two names in circulation right now. Here is what each one means in practice. This stacks to two cards on small screens, nothing is hidden off screen.
Lake Ontario
From the Wendat word Ontari’io, in use for more than 400 years
- Used by
- New York State, Canada, and most maps, media, and everyday speech
- Required for
- No requirement to change; nothing to opt into
- New York's position
- Keeping it (Gov. Kathy Hochul, Aug 27, 2026)
- Canada's position
- Keeping it (PM Mark Carney, Aug 27, 2026)
Ontari’io is widely translated as: the lake is beautiful, the lake is big. The name predates both Canadian Confederation and the U.S. Declaration of Independence.
Adoption tracker
Who actually calls it Lake America?
Seventeen governments, map providers, newsrooms, and agencies, each with its current position, a date, and a source. This is the scoreboard for whether the new name sticks, updated as positions change. Link or cite this section: lakeamericanews.com/#tracker
Adopted: 3 Refused: 6 Uses both: 1 No change yet: 7
| Who | Position | Detail | As of | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| White House | Adopted | The order requires all federal references to use Lake America, with printed documents updating over the following days. | Aug 27 | CBS News |
| US Geological Survey | Adopted | USGS designated the lake as Lake America in official federal electronic records at 4:30 pm on signing day, per its director's letter. | Aug 27 | WND |
| Interior Dept / GNIS | Adopted | The federal names database was updated the same day the order was signed, well inside the 30 day deadline the order allowed. | Aug 27 | ITV News |
| MapQuest | Refused | Posted that it is not changing the name, and launched a tool letting users rename the lake themselves. | Aug 28 | KBTX |
| New York State | Refused | Gov. Hochul: New York won't be calling it that. The state is under no obligation to follow the federal change. | Aug 27 | Spectrum News |
| Canada (federal) | Refused | PM Carney: it will be called Lake Ontario now and always, citing the 400 year old Wendat origin of the name. | Aug 27 | Global News |
| Ontario (province) | Refused | Premier Ford: it's Lake Ontario to Canadians and the rest of the world, now and forever. | Aug 28 | Time |
| Rep. Debbie Dingell | Refused | Introducing the Hands Off Our Great Lakes Act to declare the renaming order has no force or effect. | Aug 28 | Fox News |
| Pierre Poilievre | Refused | Canada's opposition leader: Lake Ontario is and will always be Lake Ontario, and no executive order will change that. | Aug 28 | Time |
| OpenStreetMap | Uses both | Editors keep the display name Lake Ontario and record Lake America only as a US official name tag, the same convention used for the Gulf since 2025. | Aug 28 | OSM Forum |
| Google Maps (US) | No change yet | No public position, and US users still see Lake Ontario. On the Gulf rename, Google followed the federal database for US users within weeks. | Aug 28 | Gadget Review |
| Apple Maps | No change yet | No public position, and the live place page for the lake still shows Lake Ontario as of today. | Aug 28 | Apple Maps |
| Associated Press | No change yet | AP wire copy still calls the lake Lake Ontario and frames Lake America as the name ordered for US federal use. No Stylebook guidance yet. | Aug 27 | AP via Sun-Times |
| Fox News | No change yet | Early coverage keeps Lake Ontario in its own voice and puts Lake America in quotes when describing the order. | Aug 27 | Fox News |
| Wikipedia | No change yet | The article is still titled Lake Ontario, with the executive order noted only in the Name section. | Aug 28 | Wikipedia |
| NOAA | No change yet | The open lake forecast issued the afternoon of August 28 is still headed Open Lake Forecast for Lake Ontario. | Aug 28 | NWS Buffalo |
| IJC (binational board) | No change yet | No statement, and its board is still named the International Lake Ontario-St. Lawrence River Board on its site. | Aug 28 | IJC |
Method notes: every row links the source it rests on. Reuters and the New York Times block automated verification, so their positions are not listed rather than guessed. Corrections and new positions: use the signup below and reply to any issue, and this table gets fixed.
The order
What the executive order actually says
On August 27, 2026, President Trump signed “Honoring the American History of the Great Lakes and Renaming Lake Ontario as Lake America” in the Oval Office, where a display map of the Great Lakes behind him already showed “Lake America” printed in large red letters over Lake Ontario.
The order directs the Secretary of the Interior, coordinating with the U.S. Board on Geographic Names, to act within 30 days: rename Lake Ontario as Lake America in the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS) and remove Lake Ontario references “consistent with applicable law.”
Its reach is narrower than the headline suggests. The order covers federal government usage only: agency maps, contracts, documents, and communications. It does not purport to bind state governments, private companies, or Canada. New York State, in other words, is free to keep Lake Ontario on its own highway signs, tourism materials, and maps.
The order describes the water body as bounded on the south and east by the State of New York, and on the north, west, and southwest by the Canadian province of Ontario.
“Canada has been ripping us off for a long time on trade, very sadly.”
President Trump, tying the renaming to the ongoing trade dispute between the U.S. and Canada
The order itself makes a territorial argument too, stating that because “the deepest parts of the Lake’s waters lying within United States territory, the United States claims most of the Lake’s volume,” and that the lake “has long been an integral asset to American exploration, settlement, commerce, and defense.”
Same-day response
Reactions
Both governments most directly touched by the name responded the day the order was signed.
New York State
Rejected
Governor Kathy Hochul rejected the new name on the day it was signed, writing on X that “New York won’t be calling it that.” Her reaction:
“I’m speechless. It is so patently absurd.”
She also criticized renaming a lake that was named after New York's indigenous peoples, and said the administration should focus instead on mending relations with Canada so farmers, consumers, and families stop suffering from the tariff dispute. As a matter of law, U.S. states are not bound by the federal order and can keep using Lake Ontario on state maps, highway signs, and tourism materials.
Gov. Kathy Hochul
Aug 27, 2026 · Fox News, The Hill
Canada
Rejected
Prime Minister Mark Carney said Canada will keep using Lake Ontario. His reaction:
“Naming reality means calling it Lake Ontario, then, now and always.”
Carney pointed to etymology, noting the name comes from the Wendat word Ontari’io, meaning “the lake is beautiful, the lake is big,” and that it is more than 400 years old, predating both Canadian Confederation and the U.S. Declaration of Independence. Canada is not required to adopt the U.S. order and has given no indication it will.
PM Mark Carney
Aug 27, 2026 · Detroit News, Lethbridge News Now
Not the first time
The Gulf of America playbook
This is the same mechanism used on the Gulf of Mexico in 2025. That precedent is the best available signal for what happens next.
2025-01-20
EO 14172 signed Done
“Restoring Names That Honor American Greatness” renames the Gulf of Mexico to Gulf of America and restores the name Denali.
2025-02-07
Secretary's Order 3423 Done
Interior Secretary Doug Burgum directs the Board on Geographic Names to update GNIS immediately for the Gulf of America.
2025-03-17
Published in the Federal Register Done
The Gulf of America renaming is formally documented (document 2025-04018).
2025-04-08
AP press-access ruling Ongoing
After the White House restricted Associated Press access over its continued use of “Gulf of Mexico,” a federal judge granted AP a preliminary injunction on First Amendment grounds. The administration appealed and the ruling was paused pending appeal, with arguments still ongoing as of November 2025 reporting.
2026-08-27
Lake Ontario order signed Done
The same order type is applied to Lake Ontario. New York and Canada reject the new name the same day.
~2026-09-26
GNIS update due Pending
The Interior Department's 30 day deadline to complete the federal database update for Lake Ontario.
Watching
Will Google Maps and Apple Maps change?
Not yet, as of the last check. Here is what each provider has actually said or done.
Google Maps
Not yet changed
When Google applied the Gulf of America label in February 2025, it used a location-based system: viewers in the U.S. saw the U.S. name, viewers in the other country saw their country's name, and everyone else saw both. Lake Ontario is a harder case: the U.S.-Canada border runs through the middle of the lake itself, not along a coastline, so a viewer in Rochester and a viewer in Toronto may end up looking at the very same patch of water under two different labels. Reporters are predicting the same mechanism will apply here; it has not been confirmed for Lake Ontario specifically.
Apple Maps
No statement
Apple has not issued a public statement on the Lake Ontario renaming. It followed Google's lead when the Gulf of America label changed in 2025, but has not addressed this case independently.
Not yet confirmed: as of August 28, 2026, no source reviewed shows Google Maps, Apple Maps, or the federal GNIS database actually displaying “Lake America” yet. This page updates when that changes.
Quick answers
Frequently asked questions
Do I have to start calling it Lake America?
No. The order only covers federal government usage: agency maps, contracts, documents, and communications. It does not require states, companies, or the public to change anything.
Did New York rename the lake?
No. New York is not bound by the federal order, and Governor Hochul has said the state will keep using Lake Ontario on state maps, signs, and tourism materials.
Did Canada rename the lake?
No. The order has no authority over Canada, and Prime Minister Carney has said Canada will keep using Lake Ontario.
Has the federal government done this before?
Yes. The same mechanism renamed the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America in 2025 under Executive Order 14172, which also restored the name Denali.
When does the federal renaming take effect?
The order gives the Secretary of the Interior 30 days from August 27, 2026, or by around September 26, 2026, to coordinate the change with the Board on Geographic Names and update the federal Geographic Names Information System.
Will Google Maps or Apple Maps show Lake America?
Not yet confirmed. Based on how Google handled the Gulf of America change, it will likely show different names depending on where the viewer is located, but as of August 28, 2026, neither Google nor Apple had made that change for Lake Ontario.
Get notified when this changes
We're watching the federal deadline, Google Maps, Apple Maps, and any move by New York or Canada. Leave your email and we'll send an update the moment any of them shifts.
- GNIS federal database update, due ~Sep 26, 2026
- Google Maps and Apple Maps label changes
- Any shift in New York's or Canada's position
You're on the list. We'll email you when something changes.
Every claim above is sourced
Notes and sources
Verified August 28, 2026. This page states the order's scope and timeline as written, and quotes officials as reported by the outlets below.
- The executive order itselfwhitehouse.gov, “Honoring the American History of the Great Lakes…”
- Order coverageCBS News
- Trade rationale quoteNBC News
- Trade contextCNBC
- Oval Office signing detailNewsweek
- Gov. Hochul's responseFox News
- Hochul, states not boundThe Hill
- PM Carney's responseLethbridge News Now
- Carney, additional coverageDetroit News
- Canada not required to adoptNewsweek
- EO 14172, Gulf of America / DenaliWikipedia
- Secretary's Order 3423Department of the Interior
- Gulf of America enters GNISUSGS
- Federal Register noticeFederal Register
- AP press-access rulingNPR
- AP case, appeal statusFox News
- Mexico's Google lawsuitCourthouse News
- Mexico lawsuit, additional coverageFox News
- Google's map-label mechanismTech Times
- Why Lake Ontario is a harder map caseTravelers Today