Apple has relabeled Lake Ontario as Lake America for U.S. users following an executive order from President Donald Trump. While Google updated its maps, the navigation app MapQuest refused the change, prompting a surge in downloads that pushed the decades-old service to the top of App Store charts.
President Trump Orders Lake Ontario Renamed in U.S. Maps
The mapping landscape for North America’s shared waters has shifted following a federal directive from President Donald Trump. Last week, the administration issued an executive order directing the Interior Department to update the designation of Lake Ontario within the U.S. geographic naming service.
Interior Secretary Doug Burgum told Fox that Trump reached out to Apple directly
regarding the modification, according to reporting from KSL News. By Wednesday morning, Apple Maps displayed the new label for users located within the United States. Users outside the U.S. continued to see the traditional designation.
The renaming initiative is part of an escalating trade war between the United States and Canada that has hiked tariffs on both sides of the border. The administration defended the shift by pointing to the physical geography of the basin. As the President said, the majority of the great lake’s volume sits in United States territory. Thanks to President Trump’s bold action, its name will now reflect its place in America and her heritage,
White House spokeswoman Allison Schuster explained via email, as noted by Newsweek.
Tech Giants Split on Implementation While Canada Rejects the Move
Major navigation platforms have taken divergent paths in response to the federal order. Google Maps implemented the change over the weekend, citing the presidential directive alongside its established practice of adopting designations assigned by the U.S. Geographic Names Information System.
People using Maps in the U.S. will see ‘Lake America,’ those in Canada will continue to see ‘Lake Ontario,’ and those outside of the U.S. and Canada will see both names,
Google stated in a release, emphasizing that the updates align with its long-standing policy for bodies of water with varying regional names.
North of the border, the reaction was swift and dismissive. Canadian leaders rejected the premise entirely, emphasizing the body’s deep indigenous heritage. The original title derives from the Huron word oniatarí:io,
translated as lake of shining waters,
which predates both the Canadian Confederation and the American Declaration of Independence.
“It’s Lake Ontario to Canadians and the rest of the world. Now and forever.”
Doug Ford, Premier of Ontario
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney also rejected the modification last week, joining provincial officials in maintaining standard international nomenclature.
MapQuest Defies the Order and Surges to the Top of App Store Charts
While major players like Apple and Google adjusted their boundaries for domestic users, historical navigation provider MapQuest took the opposite approach. The platform announced it would ignore the federal directive entirely, echoing its prior resistance to the administration’s renaming of the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America in January 2025.
In a public statement on social media, the company declared simply that we’re not changing it,
according to Newsweek. Alongside its refusal, the platform launched an online feature that allows visitors to assign custom labels to the lake themselves.
The defiance triggered a massive public reaction. MapQuest downloads jumped more than 300 percent, propelling the application to the number one spot among free navigation apps on Apple’s App Store in both the United States and Canada.
Doug Berger, general manager of MapQuest, noted that users responded enthusiastically to the stand. People let us know we were making the right decision with their downloads back then, and they are downloading even more with Lake Ontario. Millions of people are realizing they have a choice in which mapping app they use,
Berger told Newsweek.
Corporate Ownership and Background Behind the Mapping Stand
MapQuest operates under System1, a California-based consumer internet and advertising company that acquired the platform in 2019. Originally launched in 1996, the service defined early internet routing before smartphone mapping applications largely overshadowed it.
Federal Election Commission records reviewed by Newsweek indicate that System1 CEO Michael Blend has previously directed political contributions to high-profile Democratic candidates, including donations to former Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Joe Biden during past presidential election cycles. Company representatives have not clarified whether executive leadership participated directly in the decision to reject the geographic renaming.
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