Apple Maps now shows 'Lake America' for US users, following Google

Apple has updated its Maps application to display "Lake America" for users in the United States, replacing the traditional name "Lake Ontario" for the body of water bordering New York and Canada's Ontario province. The change, visible as of Wednesday morning, follows a similar move by Google over the weekend and comes after President Donald Trump issued an executive order last week directing the Interior Department to rename the lake in U.S. geographic databases.

Users outside the U.S. will continue to see "Lake Ontario" on Apple Maps. Apple did not immediately respond to requests for comment, but Interior Secretary Doug Burgum told Fox that Trump had personally reached out to the company about the change.

Google confirmed its own update on Saturday, stating that U.S. users would see "Lake America," Canadian users would see "Lake Ontario," and users elsewhere would see both names. The company cited its long-standing policy of using names from the U.S. Geographic Names Information System (GNIS) for bodies of water that have different names across countries.

The renaming is part of a broader pattern of Trump's actions during his trade dispute with Canada, which has escalated tariffs on both sides. Canadian officials have rejected the change. Ontario Premier Doug Ford asserted that the lake remains "Lake Ontario" for Canadians and the rest of the world, while Prime Minister Mark Carney noted the name's Indigenous origins, predating both the Canadian Confederation and the U.S. Declaration of Independence. The name derives from the Huron word "oniatarí:io," meaning "lake of shining waters."

This is not the first such renaming. Last year, Trump ordered the Gulf of Mexico to be renamed the Gulf of America, and both Apple and Google updated their maps accordingly. However, not all map providers have complied. MapQuest has refused to change the label and instead offers users a tool to name the lake "whatever you want," with the original names still appearing by default on its platform.