President Donald Trump may have ordered the renaming of the easternmost of Great Lake, but Mapquest and Apple Maps are sticking with its original name — Lake Ontario.
Trump renamed the Great Lake as Lake America in an Aug. 27 executive order amid trade war tensions with our northern neighbor, Canada.
However, Apple Maps, as of Sept. 1, is continuing to use Lake Ontario, along with MapQuest, which even offered a page for visitors to create their own name for the lake.
Google Maps has switched to Lake America for U.S. users, in line with its policy to follow official government names, the company said. The lake appears as Lake Ontario for users in Canada and elsewhere.
USA TODAY has reached out to Apple Maps and Waze for comment on whether it plans
to change the name.
Here's what to know about how Apple Maps is referring to Lake Ontario.
Is Apple Maps still calling it Lake Ontario?
Yes, Apple Maps is still using the name Lake Ontario, as of Tuesday, Sept. 1.
By comparison, Apple Maps opted to swap the name of the body of water formerly known as the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America after Trump's push in early 2025.
Have other maps switched to Lake America?
Google Maps officially changed the lake's name from Lake Ontario to Lake America for users in the United States on Aug. 29. In a post on its news blog, Google said it made the change "since we update Google Maps to reflect name changes in official government sources."
Google Maps users in the United States will see "Lake America" while those in Canada will continue to see "Lake Ontario" on the platform. Users outside of the U.S. and Canada will see both names, the post said.
"These updates follow our long-standing policy for bodies of water with names that vary from country to country, and are starting to roll out now," Google added.
MapQuest, the online mapping platform that predated popular apps like Google Maps and Apple Maps, is sticking with Lake Ontario, saying "We're not changing it." in an Aug. 27 social media post. On Aug. 27, MapQuest launched a new map generator for users to create their own names for the lake.
The company took a similar stance after Trump's push to rename the Gulf of Mexico in early 2025. At the time, in addition to announcing that it wouldn't change the name on its site, MapQuest also launched a map generator allowing users to "name your own Gulf."
Did Trump rename Lake Ontario?
President Donald Trump issued an executive order to rename Lake Ontario as Lake America in an Aug. 27, a move that applies to U.S. federal maps and documents, but which may not affect how others refer to the lake. Trump previously issued an order to rename the Gulf of Mexico the Gulf of America,but many still use the original name.
"With the deepest parts of the Lake’s waters lying within United States territory, the United States claims most of the Lake’s volume," reads his order signed Thursday, Aug. 27. "In recognition of this flourishing economic resource and its critical importance to our Nation’s economy and its people, I am directing that the Lake officially be renamed as Lake America."
The order came amid tensions from the U.S.-Canada trade war, with new tariffs implemented following the collapse of trade negotiations.
Detroit Free Press and USA TODAY contributed.
Contact Jenna Prestininzi: jprestininzi@freepress.com.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Is Apple Maps going to change Lake Ontario's name? What's happening
