Lake Ontario or Lake America? Google Maps results differ in Canada, US and across the world

Google Maps has started showing different names for Lake Ontario depending on the user's location. In the US, the lake is now labeled as "Lake America" following an executive order by President Donald Trump, while in Canada, it remains as "Lake Ontario". For users outside of the US and Canada, the lake is shown as "Lake Ontario (Lake America)".

The name change was made after the US Geographic Names Information System (GNIS) was updated, and Google Maps follows official government sources for name changes. This move has sparked backlash in Canada, and it's not the first time Google has faced criticism for renaming bodies of water; in 2025, the company labeled the Gulf of Mexico as the "Gulf of America", prompting Mexico to sue.

The renaming of Lake Ontario comes amid a trade war between the US and Canada, which was started by Trump. The lake's original name comes from the Indigenous Wendat word "Ontari:io", meaning "big, beautiful lake". According to DW English, the province of Ontario adopted this name after the lake.

Brief written by urgent.news from Euronews, Time, Tempo.co English, DW English (Top Stories), DW News — 5 reports on this story. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.