President Trump's executive order renaming the Gulf of Mexico has drawn a mixed reception, from laughter to annoyance. Even as the federal government implements the switch, questions persist about how it will work and who must comply.
The order, which Trump signed on his first day in office, directs the secretary of the Interior to rename the body of water as the Gulf of America within 30 days.
"The Gulf will continue to play a pivotal role in shaping America's future and the global economy, and in recognition of this flourishing economic resource and its critical importance to our Nation's economy and its people, I am directing that it officially be renamed the Gulf of America," it reads.
The gulf borders some 1,700 miles of U.S. coastline spanning Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida, as well as parts of Cuba and Mexico. Its oil and gas reserves, fisheries, ports and tourism opportunities make it a valuable resource in many ways.
"Having the name associated with the country is good PR, but it's also a matter of patriotic pride," says David Rain, a professor of geography and international affairs at George Washington University.
The name on a map can strengthen a country's claims to ownership of a certain place and its symbolic power.
"People get passionate about it because, in a way, it's a projection of their culture to call things certain things, and they want to preserve that," he adds.
In this case, however, few Americans were pushing for the gulf to be renamed before Trump put his plans into motion. (Stephen Colbert joked about the idea in 2010. A Democratic lawmaker introduced a bill to that effect in 2012, but called it satirical.)
The executive order will dictate how the federal government refers to the body of water. But whether private institutions — such as mapping platforms, media outlets and educational companies — and individuals follow suit remains to be seen.
Some, like Google, have announced plans to start calling it the Gulf of America, at least in the U.S. Others, like the Associated Press, plan to keep the original name. It's possible that some maps will eventually include both — as is the case for some other bodies of water around the world.
Rain is skeptical that a change made so unilaterally will stick. He says a future president may well reverse the order, the way that Trump is now reversing former President Barack Obama's renaming of the Alaskan mountain from Mount McKinley to Denali.
"I think whether you use it or not will depend on how you feel about Trump," Rain says. "But in terms of it turning into a lasting change, I would really doubt it."
How does renaming work?
According to the order, the renaming process involves updating the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS), the official federal database of all U.S. geographic names, to reflect the change and "remove all references to the Gulf of Mexico."
The order also instructs the U.S. Board on Geographic Names — a federal agency within the Department of Interior that standardizes geographic names for government use — to ensure the change is reflected in agency maps, contracts, documents and communications.
Within days, the Department of Interior announced it would change the names of both the Gulf of Mexico and the Alaskan mountain Denali, per Trump's order, "with efforts already underway."
"The U.S. Board on Geographic Names, under the purview of the Department of the Interior, is working expeditiously to update the official federal nomenclature in the Geographic Names Information System to reflect these changes, effective immediately for federal use," it said last Friday.
Rain explains that it's not unusual for the Board of Geographic Names to rename places and sites in the U.S., especially those with names now considered offensive. But that process usually entails an element of public support — such as a petition — and representatives from federal agencies.
"They have representatives that can weigh the evidence," he says. "It's supposed to be that kind of deliberative process, not just an executive order, sign-with-a-pen change."
Who else is making the change?
In the days after Trump signed the order, some other institutions jumped on board quickly.
The National Weather Service's Storm Prediction Center began using "Gulf of America" in its public forecasts, though the "Gulf of Mexico" still appears in some places on the weather service's website.
The energy company Chevron used the name in its quarterly earnings report released Friday.
Google made headlines by announcing it will update Google Maps as soon as the name is changed in official government sources, in accordance with its "longstanding practice."
The name change will only apply to users in the U.S., Google added. Users in Mexico will continue to see "Gulf of Mexico."
"Also longstanding practice: When official names vary between countries, Maps users see their official local name. Everyone in the rest of the world sees both names. That applies here too," the company explained.
What is Mexico saying?
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum initially laughed off Trump's order.
When Trump raised the idea in early January, Sheinbaum retorted that North America be renamed "América Mexicana," or "Mexican America," referencing a phrase from a 19th-century document. She said the week of Trump's inauguration that he could call the gulf whatever he wants.
"For us, it is still the Gulf of Mexico, and for the entire world, it is still the Gulf of Mexico," she said, according to the Associated Press, adding that it's had that name since 1607.
But she was quick to criticize Google last week after the company announced its plans to conform.
At a press conference on Thursday, Sheinbaum showed reporters a copy of a letter she sent to Google in which she argued that the U.S. cannot unilaterally rename the gulf. She cited the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, which says a country's territorial sovereignty only extends 12 nautical miles from its coastline.
"If a country wants to change the designation of something in the sea, it would only apply up to 12 nautical miles. It cannot apply to the rest, in this case, the Gulf of Mexico," Sheinbaum said. "This is what we explained in detail to Google."
NPR has reached out to Google.
Rain isn't sure how much leverage that argument carries, noting that while the U.S. recognizes some of the convention's provisions, it has never actually ratified it.
"It's a rationale," he says of Sheinbaum's argument. "I don't know if the Mexican president's going to get anywhere, but I think she can at least put this up as a protest."
Has this happened elsewhere?
The Gulf of Mexico is far from the only contentious body of water in the world. Several have different names in different countries, reflecting territorial disputes or broader geopolitical tensions.
One famous example is the body of water south of China, which much of the world calls the South China Sea. Neighboring Asian countries — who claim parts of it — use different terminology: China calls it the South Sea, Vietnam calls it the Eastern Sea and the Philippines has designated parts of it as the West Philippine Sea.
"These differing names, which also extend down to the hundreds of islands, reefs, and other features in the South China Sea, are not just semantic; they each advance a nationalist narrative and a historical claim," Edmund Lin wrote in The Diplomat last year.
Another prominent example is the body of water that separates the Arabian Peninsula from Iran. It has long been known as the Persian Gulf and is still called that in much of the world. But Arab nations in the region call it the Arabian Gulf.
"Since the 1960s, rivalry between Persians and Arabs, along with the growth of Arab nationalism and evolving Western political and economic interests, has prompted an increasing use of the term 'Arabian Gulf' when referring to the region's body of water," explains the Strauss Center for International Security and Law.
Google Maps calls it the "Persian Gulf (also known as the Arabian Gulf)."
There's also a naming dispute over what is widely known as the Sea of Japan — but referred to as the East Sea by neighboring North and South Korea. Google Maps labels it the Sea of Japan for Japanese users, the East Sea for South Korean viewers and uses both names — stylized as Sea of Japan (East Sea) — for everyone else.
Another body of water that has different names is the river that runs from Colorado through to the Gulf of Mexico. It's called the Rio Grande on the U.S. side, and the Rio Bravo in Mexico.
And Trump's order may have inspired others to call for further changes: Ukraine's United24media reported that a Russian politician has proposed changing the name of the Black Sea to the Russian Sea, "for domestic use within Russia only."
Rain acknowledges that some of these longstanding differences and disputes come with the territory. But he is wary of a scenario in which place names become so subject to change depending on where people are that they lose their meaning.
"Having some common understanding of place names, bodies of water, continents and so on, I think it's a really necessary base to build our civilization on," he says. "I think those place names are very, very important and really laden with meaning, not just sort of casually changed just with a stroke of a pen."
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