Apple Maps Changes Name Of Lake Ontario To Lake America
Update (1700ET): President Trump has voiced his approval of this change as "complete, ratified, and binding"...
As Kimberly Hayek detailed earlier for The Epoch Times, Apple has changed the name of Lake Ontario to "Lake America" on the web version of its Apple Maps service, following an executive order from U.S. President Donald Trump that renamed the body of water located on the U.S. - Canada border.
The update appeared Sept. 1 for users in the United States. It came days after Alphabet's Google Maps made a similar switch for U.S. users late Aug. 29.
Interior Secretary Doug Burgum said Aug. 31 that Trump had contacted Apple directly about the change.
"I know that the president reached out to Apple directly," Burgum said on Fox Business. "So I'm sure that we may be seeing that change coming up soon to Lake America."
Apple updated Apple Maps so that people in the United States now see the Great Lake labeled Lake America, after the U.S. Geographic Names Information System recorded the new official name.
Users in Canada still see Lake Ontario. Everyone else sees both names. Apple used the same country-based labeling after the Gulf of Mexico was renamed the Gulf of America.
Trump signed the executive order on Aug. 27, directing the Interior Department to update the U.S. Geographic Names Information System. The move came amid collapsed trade talks with Canada and new tariffs on both sides.
"Canada has been ripping us off for a long time on trade, very sadly," Trump told reporters in the Oval Office after signing the order. "Even the military ... You know, we defend Canada for nothing. We don't get anything."
He added that Canada doesn't "pay for anything" but wants to be treated like a state, though "it's not a state."
The lake, one of the five Great Lakes, sits halfway along the border of New York state and Canada's province of Ontario. Its name dates to the 1640s, long before either nation formed, and inspired the province's name in 1867.
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney rejected the renaming the same day Trump signed the order.
The lake's historic name is Lake Ontario and will remain the same "then, now and always," Carney said in a statement. He noted it comes from the Wendat word "Ontari'io," meaning "the lake is beautiful, the lake is big."
"The name is more than 400 years old, predating both the Confederation of Canada and the Declaration of Independence of the United States of America," Carney said. "We know that America is changing. Their trading relationships, their foreign policies, their national monuments, their hydronyms."
Ontario Premier Doug Ford holds a similar view. He unveiled a lakeside sign in Winona, Ontario, reading "Lake Ontario, Now and Always" in English and French.
"President Trump can call it whatever he wants, but I can tell you, the rest of the world will always call it Lake Ontario," Ford told reporters.
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul also declined to adopt the new name on state maps.
"New York won't be calling it that," she posted on X.
Google explained its update in a weekend statement, saying it follows official government sources such as the Geographic Names Information System. U.S. users now see "Lake America." Canadian users continue to see "Lake Ontario." Users elsewhere see both, it also explained.
Apple did not immediately respond to requests for comment when the request was first reported. The company previously updated Apple Maps for the Gulf of America after Trump's 2025 order renaming the Gulf of Mexico.
MapQuest, a free online mapping service owned by California-based System1, an AI-powered customer-acquisition company, has refused the change. "We're not changing it," the company posted to X. It surged to the top download on the U.S. Apple App Store charts upon its announcement.
Some Ontario government websites briefly displayed "Lake America" after Google's update because they pulled map data from the service. Hydro One, Metrolinx, Infrastructure Ontario, and the Liquor Control Board of Ontario sites showed the new label.
Officials corrected them quickly. Ontario minister of public and business service delivery and procurement Stephen Crawford said the province was reviewing all sites "to make sure they all identify Lake Ontario by its correct name: Lake Ontario."
The trade talks between the countries collapsed on Aug. 21. The United States imposed 50 percent tariffs on nearly $20 billion of Canadian goods. Canada announced matching retaliatory tariffs set to take effect Sept. 8. Trump also announced plans for 50 percent tariffs on Canadian vehicles and auto parts beginning in 2027.
Burgum ordered the Interior Department to implement the name change for the lake on Aug. 27 and posted, "Make the Great Lakes Great Again!"