After all, what does a name change involve?
The waters bordering the southern United States, Mexico and Cuba will be vital to shipping lanes and vacationers, whether called the Gulf of Mexico for four centuries or the Gulf of America, as President Donald Trump ordered this week. . North America’s highest mountain still towers over Alaska, whether it is renamed Mount Denali under former President Barack Obama’s order in 2015 or reverted to Mount McKinley under President Trump’s order.
But President Trump’s territorial claims in line with his “America First” worldview have prompted second thoughts by mapmakers and teachers, and mockery on social media, or at least cynicism from other world leaders. Additionally, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has put the pro-Trump “America’s Gulf” on official documents, and other states bordering the Gulf are considering similar measures, but how many other states are pro-Trump? It is unclear whether it will follow the precedent of
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum joked that Mexico would rename North America “Mexican America” if President Trump forced the name change. On Tuesday, she toned it down: “For us, and for the entire world, it will continue to be called the Gulf of Mexico.”
The political nature of maps cannot be denied.
The lines on the map are inherently political. After all, they are expressions of places that matter to humans, and whose priorities are delicate and controversial, especially in a globalized world.
There is no agreed upon plan for naming boundaries and features on Earth.
“Denali” was a mountain name favored by Alaska Natives, and “McKinley” was designated by gold prospectors in the late 19th century in honor of President William McKinley. China considers Taiwan its territory, and the countries surrounding what the United States calls the South China Sea have multiple names for the same body of water.
Although the Persian Gulf has been widely known by that name since the 16th century, the use of “Gulf” or “Arabian Gulf” is predominant in many countries in the Middle East. The government of Iran (formerly Persia) threatened to sue Google in 2012 over the company’s decision not to show any bodies of water on its maps. Many Arab countries do not recognize Israel, instead calling it Palestine. And in many official statements, Israel refers to the occupied West Bank by its Biblical name, “Judea and Samaria.”
Americans and Mexicans are divided over what to call another important body of water, the river that forms the border between Texas and the Mexican states of Chihuahua, Coahuila, Nuevo Leon, and Tamaulipas. Americans call it the Rio Grande. Mexicans call it Rio Bravo.
President Trump’s executive order, titled “Restoring a Name that Celebrates American Greatness,” concludes: Naming national treasures, including breathtaking natural wonders and historic works of art, should honor the contributions of visionary and patriotic Americans in our nation’s rich past. ”
But what do you call a bay with 3,700 miles of coastline?
“I think it’s probably an internationally recognized ocean, but (to be honest) a situation like this has never happened before, so we need to check the appropriate treaties,” he said. said Peter Bellerby. With cartographers from his London firm, Bellerby & Company Globemakers. “For example, if he wanted to turn the Atlantic Ocean into the American Sea, we would probably ignore that.”
It’s decision time for some people
As of Wednesday night, Google and Apple’s mapping applications still refer to the mountains and bays by their old names. Spokespeople for those platforms did not immediately respond to emailed questions.
A spokesperson for National Geographic, one of the most prominent U.S. map makers, said this week that the company does not comment on individual incidents and referred questions to a statement on its website. , refer to multiple reliable sources of information and make independent decisions based on extensive research. ” National Geographic also plans to publish explanatory notes on disputed place names, citing the area of water between Japan and the Korean peninsula (called the Sea of Japan by the Japanese and the East Sea by Koreans) as an example.
In a discussion on social media, one thread pointed out that Chicago’s Sears Tower was renamed Willis Tower in 2009, but is still commonly known by its original nickname. Harrisburg, Pennsylvania’s capital, changed the name of Market Street to Martin Luther King Boulevard and then changed it back to Market Street a few years later, both times with major complaints. In 2017, New York’s Tappan Zee Bridge was renamed after the late Governor Mario Cuomo, sparking much controversy. While the new name appears on the map, “no one calls it that,” another user noted.
“Are we going to start teaching this as the name of a body of water?” one Reddit poster asked on Tuesday.
The answer was, “Some people want to change the name of this body of water to the Gulf of America, but I think you can tell your students that everyone in the world calls this body of water the Gulf of Mexico.” It’s here. “Cover all your bases. They know the real-life names as well as the names of the applicants.”
Another user wrote, “If I was forced to call Tappan Zee the Mario Cuomo Bridge, I would call it the Gulf of America, but I would never say that.”
