Apple changed something on its maps this week. If you open Apple Maps in the U.S. and look at Lake Ontario, you’ll now see a different name. It says “Lake America.”
This didn’t happen randomly. Last week, President Trump signed an executive order calling for the name change. Lake Ontario sits on the border between New York and the Canadian province of Ontario, and it’s one of the five Great Lakes. Once Trump’s order went through, the U.S. Geographic Names Information System updated its records to match. That’s the government database that map companies often pull from.
Google moved first. Its maps switched over to “Lake America” a few days before Apple did anything. Apple took a bit longer, and even now, the rollout isn’t finished everywhere. Some people already see the new name. Others still see “Lake Ontario” when they check their phones. It seems to depend on which device you’re using and maybe even which part of the country you’re in.
Axios broke the story that Trump reached out to Apple directly and asked the company to make the switch. Interior Secretary Doug Burgum later confirmed this in an interview. The timing isn’t a coincidence either. The U.S. and Canada have been going back and forth on tariffs lately, and this name change landed right in the middle of that tension.
Canada isn’t accepting the new name. If you’re using Apple Maps or Google Maps from Canada, you’ll still see “Lake Ontario,” not “Lake America.” And if you’re outside both countries, the apps show both names together.
This isn’t the first time something like this has happened. Apple did the same thing when Trump ordered the Gulf of Mexico renamed to “Gulf of America.” That change took Apple over three weeks to roll out, so it’s clear the company doesn’t move fast on these things, at least compared to Google.
One company is refusing to play along. MapQuest, an app a lot of people forgot still existed, said it has no plans to change the lake’s name. The company posted something blunt on social media, basically telling people to call the lake whatever they want. That post spread fast, and now MapQuest is sitting at the top of the App Store’s free app charts. Not bad for a service that had mostly disappeared from people’s phones.
