Google Maps to display Lake Ontario as Lake America in U.S.

OTTAWA – Google Maps has updated to display “Lake America” for users located in the United States, after President Donald Trump signed an executive order this week to rename the Great Lake.

Users in Canada will still see it displayed as Lake Ontario on Google Maps, though the search engine will pull up Lake America as a result if users enter that name in their query.

The search giant said in an Aug. 29 post on its corporate website it made the change because the U.S. government’s geographic names database has formally renamed the lake.

Users outside Canada and the U.S. will see both names, Google’s post said. 

“It’s official! LAKE AMERICA on Google Maps,” White House communications director Steven Cheung posted on the social media website X on Sunday.

Appearing on ABC’s “This Week” program on Sunday, Ontario Premier Doug Ford said the name change won’t stick, despite Trump signing the executive order on Thursday.

“It was like something out of ‘Saturday Night Live’ when (Trump) signed a document saying change it to Lake America,” Ford said. 

“No one’s going to call it Lake of America. It’s been Lake Ontario for hundreds of years. It’s going to continue being Lake Ontario.”

On Saturday, Ford unveiled a large sign in Winona, a small lakeside community part of Hamilton, Ont., which says, “Lake Ontario, now and always.”

Also on Saturday, Trump posted a video rendered by artificial intelligence where he replaces a Lake Ontario sign with another that reads “Welcome to Lake America,” then dances to the YCMA song by the Village People.

Prime Minister Mark Carney responded to Trump’s bid to rename the lake in a social media post on Thursday. Carney said Canadians know Lake Ontario will always be known by its original name, “then, now and always.”

Lake Ontario, one of the five Great Lakes, is located between Ontario and New York. The Canadian province is named after the lake.

New York Governor Kathy Hochul said after Trump signed his order that New York won’t call it that.

Tensions between the two countries have escalated since trade talks fell apart on Aug. 21. 

Both countries have accused each other of implementing last-minute changes to a proposed interim trade deal.

On Tuesday, the federal government unveiled upwards of $27 billion in retaliatory measures, set to kick in on Sept. 8, responding to new U.S. tariffs. 

Trump first threatened to rename the body of water during an escalating war of words with Ontario’s premier.

Ford had called the president a bully and a loser on Aug. 24, while Trump said the premier was a “less charismatic” and less intelligent version of his late brother Rob Ford.

The premier said during his ABC appearance on Sunday that things “got heated” between Trump and himself, but “you’ve eventually got to stand up to someone who just continuously attacks our country and insults our country.”

“It’s unfortunate that he stoops down to that level and unfortunately I did that day,” Ford said, adding he wants to see both sides return their focus to advancing a mutually beneficial free-trade deal.

Trump continued to take jabs at Canada on social media Sunday, urging Canadian companies doing business with the U.S. to cross the border. He also insisted he doesn’t want Canadian cars, parts or “Canadian anything.”

Trump signed a similar executive order last year to change the name of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America.

The orders only apply to U.S. federal documents and geographic services, but some online map services and American news agencies have since called it the Gulf of America.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 30, 2026.

— With files from Kelly Geraldine Malone in Washington