One Gulf. Different Countries. Different Names.

One body of water. Three map-label contexts.

President Donald Trump signed an executive order directing the U.S. government to use “Gulf of America” for the U.S. Continental Shelf area formerly identified federally as the Gulf of Mexico.

Four days later, the Department of the Interior announced that Gulf of America was effective for federal use and that the U.S. Board on Geographic Names was updating the Geographic Names Information System.

Mexico did not adopt the change.

The Gulf borders the United States, Mexico, and Cuba, and the name Gulf of Mexico continued to be used by Mexico and internationally.

Then digital mapping added another layer.

Google Maps follows official geographic naming sources while also accommodating differences between countries.

After the U.S. federal database was updated, Google announced that users in the United States would see:

Gulf of America

Users in Mexico would continue to see:

Gulf of Mexico

And users elsewhere would see both names.

One body of water therefore acquired different map labels depending on where the person looking at the map was located.

The water had not changed.

The coastline had not changed.

The international borders had not changed.

Only the official naming systems had diverged.

For a while, asking “What is this gulf called?” no longer had a single answer without another question:

Where are you looking from?