Who is “we”?
A bit off topic but George R. Stewart’s Names On The Land is a great book full of stories behind place names in America.
It would make more sense to rename it “Lake Obama-Superior”
Small bit of pedantry with the thread title: the government, including the President, doesn’t have rights. In other words, the person who is the President has the exact same rights that the rest of us have. The office of chief executive has the authority to determine what the US government calls things.
Hari_Seldon’s location is Montreal, so “we” probably means Canada.