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2/ Let's begin by understanding the Gulf itself, before delving into the complexities of renaming.

This significant oceanic basin serves as a crucial gateway to the Atlantic Ocean. It supports substantial fishing, oil, and gas industries, and acts as a vital maritime transportation corridor. The Gulf borders the United States , Mexico , and Cuba .

See below a modern and 1700 map of the Gulf.

3/ So let's move to the Presidential order.

Can a US president simply rename things?

Trump has signed an "Executive Order", and this will, in due course, be the norm within official documents of the US. Indeed, despite the EO not being passed yet, it seems to have already spread to some state-level documentation, with the term Gulf of America already being used in a Florida weather alert

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/florida-gulf-of-america-donald-trump-b2683457.html

4/ The US Board on Geographic Names is the body that maintains name usage across the US federal government.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Board_on_Geographic_Names

Only once the name is updated here is the renaming "official" for government purposes.

https://edits.nationalmap.gov/apps/gaz-domestic/public/gaz-record/558730

5/ But obviously "offical" names are only a small part of the story.

Places have many names, official and informal, and changing accepted usage can take generations.

Will people actually use the term "Gulf of America"?

A quick glance at the #OpenStreetMap community discussion shows this debate in action. Just because the name changes, doesn’t mean it will actually ‘change’:

https://community.openstreetmap.org/t/gulf-of-america-gulf-of-mexico/124571/9

6/ It is very normal that different communities refer to the same place by different names.

München in Germany is called Munich in English.

OpenStreetMap handles this by using different tags, "name:de" versus "name:en". Tags can specify alternative names, official names, etc.

So one likely possibility is that the name:en tag remains "Gulf of Mexico" while official_name:en-US is set as "Gulf of America" (and of course name:es remaining "Golfo de México")

7/ This flexibility is one of the great powers of #OpenStreetMap

You (yes, you!) can get the raw data, for free, and then render the world
in accordance with whatever political views you hold, no matter how wild and far-fetched.

Some groups do this, for example showing disputed territories as belonging to their country. Here for example is a screenshot from a few years back of the OpenStreetMap Morocco site, which shows Western Sahara as, well, part of Morocco.

8/ Still, it does matter what the defaults are that most people see. What will popular map services like Google and Apple show?

We don't yet know, but CEOs of both companies were in attendance at the inauguration.

Here are some examples of how Google handles other controversial names:

Myanmar / Burma
https://maps.app.goo.gl/Zq5qm5jWUzssLqDK9

Londonderry / Derry
https://maps.app.goo.gl/KYxTuAWYCVGKv8Mp8

9/ Naming controversies have a tendency to last a long time, especially those involving international bodies of water that no single country clearly owns.

Two key examples include the Arabian/Persian Gulf naming dispute https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Persian_Gulf_naming_dispute

that contends Iranian and pan-Arabist political narratives ..
and the Japan / South Korea / North Korea naming dispute over the stretch of sea between the two countries:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sea_of_Japan_naming_dispute

10/ We'll wrap up the thread there, it is clear that this story has only just begun, and there could well be more meaningful Trump administration attempts to re-work maps of North America.

Plans were also announced to rename America's highest peak (despite local objection, including from Republicans),

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denali%E2%80%93Mount_McKinley_naming_dispute

and to "take back" the Panama canal

11/ we hope you enjoyed this week‘s #geoweirdness thread. Thanks for reading and sharing.

You may also enjoy

- our recent look at the geographic oddities of Greenland
https://en.osm.town/@opencage/113800557605866524

- US non-state territories:
https://en.osm.town/@opencage/110644249174123375

- or the monster 50 US state thread:
https://en.osm.town/@opencage/113391076573486931

We have many more threads about specific countries, border disputes, geocoding, etc listed on our blog. Enjoy.
https://blog.opencagedata.com/geothreads