A 15-year-old liberal comedian’s satirical proposal to rename the Gulf of Mexico the “Gulf of America” has received a major boost from President-elect Donald Trump.
President Trump said at a news conference Tuesday that it would be a “beautiful name” for the body of water that borders the U.S. southern coast from around Texas to Florida to the north. It also encompasses Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula.
A federal commission has the power to rename geographic locations in the United States, and Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene has promised to immediately introduce legislation to implement the plan. These changes are not necessarily binding on neighboring Gulf states or other countries.
President Trump said, “I will change the name of the Gulf of Mexico to the Beautiful Ring of the Gulf of America.” “American Gulf, what a beautiful name, it fits perfectly.”
Over the past six centuries, the bay has reflected a long and contested history with France, particularly the Gulf of New Spain and the Mar di Florida, federal officials said. It has also been called the sea. , Spain and other European countries that colonized the New World.
According to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the Gulf has approximately 3,540 miles of coastline, more than half of which borders the coast of Mexico, and that doesn’t include the countless bays and inlets.
President Trump’s comments came in the context of discussing plans to overturn new offshore oil and gas drilling restrictions approved by the outgoing Biden administration.
Can President Trump rename the Gulf of Mexico?
President Trump, or any other American, could propose a name change. Under federal law, the U.S. government has a process for officially naming and renaming geographic features, from rivers and lakes to mountains. Under the watchful eye of the Place Names Commission, this happens more often than you might think, with federal officials in recent years changing historic place names deemed offensive, especially to Black and Indigenous people.
States generally do not have to use the same name as the federal government, but they must use the same name as the federal government.
“BGN is responsible by law for standardizing geographic names across the federal government and will prevent name changes unless there is a compelling reason to do so,” the Geographical Names Board said on its website. “Furthermore, changing an existing name solely to correct or reestablish historical usage must not be the primary reason for changing the name.”
In Colorado, both the state and federal governments have agreed to change the name of one of the state’s tallest mountains to Mount Blue Sky.
Formerly known as Mount Evans, it was renamed at the urging of a Native American tribe upset to honor a former territorial governor involved in the 1864 Sand Creek Massacre. Reflecting the typical renaming process, the mountain was officially renamed by Colorado officials in 2022, followed by federal officials the following year.
There are some caveats. The United States can change the name of the bay, but other countries are not required to use that name. Several international organizations, including the United Nations Group of Experts on Place Names, help mediate these disagreements.
“As a cornerstone of the need for global standardization of geographical names, UNGEGN promotes the recording of locally used names, reflecting the languages and traditions of the countries,” the group said. It says on the website. “…geographers, linguists, cartographers, planners, and others are professionals who develop tools, utilize technology, and provide assistance to ensure the accurate and consistent use of a common framework of geographic names. We share the belief that by doing so, we can bring great benefits to humanity.”
How quickly will the Gulf of Mexico be renamed?
Under normal circumstances, changing place names in the United States takes at least six months, according to the Board of Place Names. This allows time for consultation with states, tribes, mapmakers, and other stakeholders.
In a post on X, formerly known as Twitter, Greene announced a draft of her proposed bill, the American Bay Act of 2025, and urged Congress to pass it within 180 days.
“It’s our bay. Its rightful name is American Bay and the whole world should call it that,” she posted. “Congress needs to take seriously the imperatives of the Trump Agenda, and that means moving quickly to enact it.”
Where did this idea to rename the Gulf come from?
This isn’t the first time someone has suggested a name change.
In 2010, The Colbert Report host Stephen Colbert helps clean up the Bay after the Deepwater Horizon spill, which released 168 million gallons of oil into the roughly 60,000 square mile bay. Established the American Gulf Fund.
“I don’t think you can call it the Gulf of Mexico anymore. We destroyed it, we bought it,” Colbert was quoted as saying in 2010.
At the time, Colbert was the host of the satirical show Comedy Central. He is currently the host of CBS’ The Late Show and a longtime opponent of President Trump. The Colbert report routinely mocked conservatives, including the kind of nationalism espoused by Trump and his MAGA supporters.
In 2012, former U.S. Rep. Stephen Holland of Mississippi suggested changing the name as a joke to mock his Republican colleagues for trying to force Mexicans out of the state at all costs. That proposal never moved forward.
What risks are involved in changing place names?
Consistency in names is important for navigation purposes. Therefore, the Federal Government’s Board of Geographical Names requires all federal agencies to use a database known as the Geographic Names Information System. The federal system includes more than 1 million place names in the United States.
The United Nations Group plays a similar role at the international level, along with the International Hydrographic Organization and the International Maritime Organization.
There’s also a broader social conversation about names. Research shows that as European colonizers renamed geographic features around the world, their names diminished and, in some cases, erased the history of the indigenous peoples who originally lived there. has been.
Beth Williamson of the University of London wrote in a 2023 study that “power inscribed on the landscape through place names helps to create a sense of belonging for colonizers, ultimately giving them control over their social and physical environments. It has become a tool for .
Gene Tucker, a history professor at Temple University in Texas, said renaming places often provokes unexpected emotional reactions. He cited the 2023 renaming of the Army post in his hometown of Killeen, Texas, to Fort Cavazos, a change that still frustrates his parents.
“Changing a place name hurts the feelings of a lot of people,” said Tucker, who has a doctorate in Spanish American place names and is a member of the Texas Mapping Society. “Changing the name of the place I grew up next to changes my history, and it changes me. It’s like saying everything about us is wrong. .”
Tucker said many counties have ongoing disputes over common geographic features, including China’s disputed spots in the Pacific. The Rio Grande River, which runs along the southern border of the United States, is known in Mexico as the Rio Bravo.
Tucker noted that the Gulf of Mexico has a longer coastline than the U.S. portion, so Mexico probably has a stronger claim to naming the bay, but the U.S. can call it pretty much whatever it wants. .
“We could call the Gulf of Mexico Trump Bay, but no one else would need to listen to us,” he said with a laugh.
When told that the Federal Naming Commission traditionally prohibits naming places in honor of a person until at least five years have passed since their death, he replied, “Then you can call it Texas Bay.” Okay, that sounds good.”
What happened on Mount Denali?
The mountain was controversially named after McKinley over the objections of many Alaskans, but was renamed Denali within the state in 1975. It was still called McKinley on federal maps until the Obama administration changed it to Denali in 2015.
President Trump also recently suggested that he would like to change the name of Alaska’s Denali to “Mount McKinley” in honor of former President William McKinley, the name given to the country’s tallest mountain by white Americans.
Contributed by CA Bridges, USA TODAY NETWORK – Florida
