Google Rejected Proposal to Rename the Atlantic Ocean, Trump Says
US President Donald Trump has said Google rejected his proposal to rename the Atlantic Ocean after himself or America. He revealed the information himself while speaking at a rally in South Carolina on Wednesday.
Trump said he had called Google chief executive Sundar Pichai to ask whether the company could carry out the proposal. In his words, Google Maps had earlier cooperated with him over the name of a lake.
At the rally, Trump said he likes only two oceans — the Atlantic and the Pacific. He also commented that he would not put either Trump or America on any ocean other than these two.
He said they had seriously considered the Atlantic Ocean and that the idea led him to call Google Maps. He also joked that Google was still rattled from the Gulf renaming experience.
Trump had earlier, by executive order, renamed the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America. Amid a trade feud between the US and Canada, he also pushed to rename Lake Ontario as Lake America and signed an executive order requiring US federal agencies to use his new name.
According to Trump’s account, Pichai rejected the latest proposal. Quoting the Google chief’s response, Trump said Pichai would not do it this time; oceans are different because they cover a lot of countries, and he asked not to be requested to do that.
Trump then said he would probably pass on the plan. Asking the rally audience whether he should pass, he said the Atlantic Ocean should keep its name.
Google has been contacted for comment. No formal response from the company had been received by the time of reporting.
Google previously acceded to Trump’s demands for name changes, which triggered public criticism including from Mexico and Canada. On Google Maps, the locations are labelled Gulf of America and Lake America for US users, while search results display the new names alongside the original names in parentheses.
Users in Mexico and Canada, meanwhile, continue to see the original names. As a result, showing different names by country on the same map has been discussed internationally.
Trump has also previously floated renaming the Strait of Hormuz after himself. Last month, amid the US’s ongoing war with Iran, he wrote on Truth Social asking whether the Hormuz Strait should be changed to Trump Strait.
Altogether, Trump’s Atlantic comment is another episode in his renaming politics. But this time, according to Google’s objection and his own announcement, the name of the Atlantic Ocean remains unchanged for now.
