# The "Gulf of America"? Wth? Can you just change the name of a body of water? **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Tags:** trump\ **Created:** [January 7, 2025, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-gulf-of-america-wth-can-you-just-change-the-name-of-a-body-of-water/1012683 "2025-01-07T18:54:38Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 14
**Author:** ![Lord\_Feldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lord_feldon/32/341_2.png) [@Lord\_Feldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lord_Feldon)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2025, 11:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-gulf-of-america-wth-can-you-just-change-the-name-of-a-body-of-water/1012683/261 "2025-02-13T11:14:13Z")
> [@PhillyGuy](#): > > While renaming the Gulf is a completely undeserved insult to Mexico, I suspect it is a mildly popular move, and I think calling it racist is incorrect. Issue polling is always a little fuzzy, but it [seems to be](https://www.reuters.com/world/us/americans-sour-some-trumps-early-moves-reutersipsos-poll-finds-2025-01-28/) one of the _least_ popular things he has done, worse even than the tariffs on Canada or the January 6th pardons. ---
**Author:** ![elbows](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/b3f665/32.png) [@elbows](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elbows)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2025, 11:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-gulf-of-america-wth-can-you-just-change-the-name-of-a-body-of-water/1012683/262 "2025-02-13T11:39:23Z")
Wait till he renames Lake Ontario. Y’know he’s gonna, it’s just a matter of time I reckon. ---
**Author:** ![Idle\_Thoughts](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/838e76/32.png) [@Idle\_Thoughts](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Idle_Thoughts)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2025, 3:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-gulf-of-america-wth-can-you-just-change-the-name-of-a-body-of-water/1012683/263 "2025-02-13T15:05:04Z")
> [@thorny\_locust](#): > > What’s the name of that principle when some group has gone so far off the wall that you can’t tell? Trumpism? {being funny, not serious, there’s a name for this, see: Poe’s Law)(Or what **JKellyMap** said) ---
**Author:** ![Babale](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/babale/32/15666_2.png) [@Babale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Babale)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2025, 3:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-gulf-of-america-wth-can-you-just-change-the-name-of-a-body-of-water/1012683/264 "2025-02-13T15:07:13Z")
> [@smithsb](#): > > No part of California borders the Gulf. Uuuuh, Baja California? ---
**Author:** ![Kolak\_of\_Twilo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kolak_of_twilo/32/73_2.png) [@Kolak\_of\_Twilo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kolak_of_Twilo)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2025, 3:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-gulf-of-america-wth-can-you-just-change-the-name-of-a-body-of-water/1012683/265 "2025-02-13T15:24:02Z")
You realize the Baja California peninsula borders the Gulf of California, right? A totally different Gulf. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2025, 3:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-gulf-of-america-wth-can-you-just-change-the-name-of-a-body-of-water/1012683/266 "2025-02-13T15:40:09Z")
> [@Kolak\_of\_Twilo](#): > > A totally different Gulf. And no part of California (or the United States) borders _that_ gulf. ---
**Author:** ![Babale](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/babale/32/15666_2.png) [@Babale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Babale)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2025, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-gulf-of-america-wth-can-you-just-change-the-name-of-a-body-of-water/1012683/267 "2025-02-13T15:41:24Z")
> [@Kolak\_of\_Twilo](#): > > You realize the Baja California peninsula borders the Gulf of California, right? The little up arrow next to the quote expands the original post and shows you context you might be missing: > [@smithsb](#): > > And why the heck is the Gulf of California not the real Gulf of Mexico. No part of California borders the Gulf. ---
**Author:** ![Babale](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/babale/32/15666_2.png) [@Babale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Babale)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2025, 3:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-gulf-of-america-wth-can-you-just-change-the-name-of-a-body-of-water/1012683/268 "2025-02-13T15:43:10Z")
> [@Johnny\_L.A](#): > > And no part of California (or the United States) borders _that_ gulf. Now we are just going in circles. What started this whole chain was pointing out that yes, [Baja] California does in fact border the Gulf of California, hence the name. ---
**Author:** ![Machine\_Elf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/82dd89/32.png) [@Machine\_Elf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Machine_Elf)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2025, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-gulf-of-america-wth-can-you-just-change-the-name-of-a-body-of-water/1012683/269 "2025-02-13T19:20:29Z")
In other news, Lake Michigan is now Lake Illinois: [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/059lXXlPD08/maxresdefault.jpg "Gov. Pritzker Says Lake Michigan Is Now Called Lake Illinois") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=059lXXlPD08) ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2025, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-gulf-of-america-wth-can-you-just-change-the-name-of-a-body-of-water/1012683/270 "2025-02-13T20:43:49Z")
Mexico is threatening to sue Google and/or rename the US southwest to “Mexican America”. > **[Mexico threatens to sue Google over 'Gulf of America' name change](https://www.rawstory.com/mexico-threatens-to-sue-google-over-gulf-of-america-name-change/)** > > Mexico on Thursday threatened to sue Google over its changing the Gulf of Mexico's name to "Gulf of America" for Maps users in the United States to comply with President Donald Trump's executive order."We do have a dispute with Google at the moment,"... ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2025, 9:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-gulf-of-america-wth-can-you-just-change-the-name-of-a-body-of-water/1012683/271 "2025-02-13T21:06:24Z")
This thread kills me. It would be a laughable subject if it wasn’t so sad. ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2025, 11:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-gulf-of-america-wth-can-you-just-change-the-name-of-a-body-of-water/1012683/272 "2025-02-13T23:52:14Z")
> [@Machine\_Elf](#): > > In other news, Lake Michigan is now Lake Illinois: He’s also making an offer for Illinois to buy Green Bay. What’s he going to do there? Something heinous like make them trade away all their starters so the Bears have a chance of beating them? ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2025, 5:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-gulf-of-america-wth-can-you-just-change-the-name-of-a-body-of-water/1012683/273 "2025-02-14T05:20:43Z")
Google has heard our complaints. By which I mean they’ve disabled users’ ability to rate the Gulf of Mexico and have deleted every comment left on it in the past month. > **[Google Maps blocks Gulf of America reviews after rename criticism](https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/crlky380wd7o)** > > It controversially updated the Gulf's name for US users after President Trump ordered it to be changed. It is, however, still possible to rate and review Google Maps on the Play Store, so you know what to do. ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2025, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-gulf-of-america-wth-can-you-just-change-the-name-of-a-body-of-water/1012683/274 "2025-02-16T16:04:37Z")
> [@PhillyGuy](#): > > I think the case for renaming Fort Liberty being racist is stronger. The claim that the world’s largest (or highest population) military base is now really named for Pfc. Roland Bragg is obvious nonsense. I partially blame Biden for that one. It would be a lot harder to justify changing the name back if it hadn’t been changed to something dumb like Fort Liberty. It was immediately called liberty biberty by soldiers. Notice none of the other bases have been changed back because they were named after real heroes. If they had named Bragg Fort Gavin this probably wouldn’t have happened. They may still come up with some justification to change the names but this one was made easy for them. ---
**Author:** ![Coriolanus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/coriolanus/32/18769_2.png) [@Coriolanus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Coriolanus)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2025, 12:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-gulf-of-america-wth-can-you-just-change-the-name-of-a-body-of-water/1012683/275 "2025-02-20T00:24:48Z")
Russia still calls the Gulf that begins at St. Petersburg and mostly borders Russia on the North (where they occupied parts of Finnish Karelia after The Great War and the South up to Estonia) **Gulf of Finland** **“Финский залив”** (_Finskiy Zaliv_), which directly translates to **“Finnish Gulf”** in English. Probably as you can call Putin a dictator or tyrant or lots of things, but “batshit crazy lunatic who has crowned himself King” is not one of them. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-gulf-of-america-wth-can-you-just-change-the-name-of-a-body-of-water/1012683.md?page=13)