How Names on Maps Get Changed—and Who Gets to Decide

Yahoo

21-02-2025

Kris Krüg/Getty
On January 20, 2025, President Donald Trump issued an executive order titled 'Restoring Names That Honor American Greatness' instructing the US Board on Geographic Names (BGN), a federal body responsible for maintaining geographic name usage throughout the government, to rename the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America and Denali to Mount McKinley within 30 days.
'It is in the national interest to promote the extraordinary heritage of our Nation and ensure future generations of American citizens celebrate the legacy of our American heroes,' the executive order says. 'The naming of our 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.'
Denali, pronounced 'De-naa-lee,' means 'the great one' or 'the tall one' and was given to the Alaskan mountain by the Koyukon Athabascan people who have lived in the region for centuries. The mountain, located within the Denali National Park and Preserve, is now at the center of a bipartisan legislative effort led by Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski to keep its native name.
'It's our sacred mountain and to us it's always Denali,' says Miranda Wright, an Alaska Native and a member of the Denaa tribe of Interior Alaska. Wright is an elder with a Master's degree in cultural anthropology and possesses extensive knowledge of the legends and customs of the Denaa. 'We have stories of the great journeys that our people take, climbing up what we refer to as the glass mountain because of all the glaciers. As our loved ones depart and go on to the next world, one of the last challenges or hurdles that they have is to climb that glass mountain. The name is very near and dear to us, and it's an insult to our people to have that name changed.'
"There's so much rich history that's associated with [the name] Denali. It's a wonderful way for people who are traveling to get to know Alaska and its people. The name is the gateway to that knowledge.'
Native Alaskan elder Miranda Wright
In 2015, the Obama administration changed the mountain's official name from Mount McKinley to Denali, noting in the Secretary of the Interior's order that President William McKinley didn't have any significant historical connection to the mountain or to Alaska. '[The name] McKinley does nothing for tourism or cultural advancement,' says Wright. 'Learning the meaning of the word Denali exposes you to a rich culture of people who lived all through the interior of Alaska. It's a mountain where in the early days our people used to go sheep hunt. There's so much rich history that's associated with [the name] Denali. It's a wonderful way for people who are traveling to get to know Alaska and its people. The name is the gateway to that knowledge.'
Likewise, the name Golfo de México has a long history that predates the formation of both countries, Mexico and the United States, originating with the Aztecs in the Indigenous Nahuatl language. According to Samuel Truett, a professor at the University of New Mexico who specializes in US and Mexican history, as quoted in the New York Times, 'The gulf has had many names, from the Gulf of Florida to the Gulf of Cortés, but there is evidence of the Gulf of Mexico name sticking as early as 1552, used in print by a Spanish historian.'
The US shares maritime boundaries with Mexico and Cuba, who have jurisdiction over 49% and 5% percent of the waters respectively, leaving the US with approximately 46% according to the Associated Press. Mexico's president Claudia Sheinbaum says Mexico has sovereignty over their continental shelf, arguing that Google has changed the name of a geographic zone that is not under US jurisdiction. CNN reports that Sheinbaum will send a new letter to Google saying 'any reference to the 'Gulf of America' initiative on your Google Maps platform must be strictly limited to the marine area under US jurisdiction.'
The name change highlights the way in which many people in the US often use the word 'America' to refer solely to the United States. To many Latin Americans, the term refers to the continent of America—which includes North, Central, and South America. The name America predates the formation of the US as a country and was given to the continent by mapmaker Martin Waldseemüller after Italian explorer, merchant, and astronomer Amerigo Vespucci who landed in present-day Brazil in 1501. 'The new continent was surrounded by water, and, on the part that is known today as Brazil, the map-makers placed a name: America,' reports Madhvi Ramani for the BBC.
Mexicans are pushing back on the name change. The Mexico City-born fashion designer Patricio Campillo responded with creativity—as artists do in times of political and social upheaval—using his platform at New York Fashion Week to make a statement with his dolphin-stamped El Golfo de México T-shirt, a symbol of resistance and Mexican pride. In a press conference on January 21, Sheinbaum sent a clear message: 'For us and for the whole world, it is still the Gulf of Mexico.'
Following Trump's order, the Secretary of the Interior, which shares responsibilities with the BGN, has proceeded to implement the name changes of Denali and the Gulf of Mexico, prompting Apple and Google to update their maps. 'We have a longstanding practice of applying name changes when they have been updated in official government sources,' said Google in a statement released on X. 'For geographic features in the US, this is when Geographic Names Information System (GNIS) is updated.'
'Also longstanding practice: When official names vary between countries, Map users see their official local name. Everyone in the rest of the world sees both names. That applies here too,' Google's statement continues. The changes are also explained in a Google blog post dated February 10, 2025.
The distinction Google makes is an important one to note; official place names often vary from the local names. Governments, political leaders, explorers, and mapmakers have long held influence over the titles of places and geographical features, usually with little to no regard for the names actually used by the native or local people in the area. So is anyone outside of the US government obligated to use its official names? According to the US Department of the Interior, the answer is no.
'The BGN handles name changes for federal use,' says J. Elizabeth Peace, the Senior Public Affairs Specialist in the US Department of the Interior's Office of the Secretary. 'It is up to private companies to determine their process for name changes.'
Matthew Edney, a Osher Professor in the History of Cartography at the University of Southern Maine, says: 'The federal government has no power to dictate to any map publisher, print or digital, 'Thou shall use this name for this location.' They can only try to persuade people other than the federal government.'
While some name changes are achieved through executive orders, anyone can propose a change to an existing name of a geographical feature through a form on the US Board on Geographic Names (BGN) website. To make it easy for tribal nations, grassroots organizations, and the general public to understand the name proposal process, The Wilderness Society, a nonprofit organization dedicated to protecting public lands throughout the US, and the National Association of Tribal Historic Preservation Officers (NATHPO), released a 37-page guide to changing racist and offensive place names in the United States in 2022.
The length of time to execute a successful name change campaign can vary. 'Gathering support from elected leaders, local organizations, and the public takes time. For example, efforts to officially rename [Mount Evans as] Mount Blue Sky in Colorado took years,' says Starlyn Miller, a Little Shell Chippewa tribal member and Director of Native Lands Partnerships at The Wilderness Society (TWS). According to Miller, in certain states, applications must go through a state renaming board whose members are appointed by the governor. The board then makes a recommendation to the US Board on Geographic Names.
'Ultimately, place names are about people agreeing to use them,' says Edney. According to the professor, the time it takes for a new name to get adopted by the general public is 'completely undefinable.' He says, 'It may take a generation, it may take two days. It's a question of who's using the name, and how open the communities are to change and to the need to change.'
In its most basic definition, a map is an illustration of certain features of a geographical area. Yet, its purpose and meaning vary based on who creates it and how it's used. 'From an Indigenous perspective, maps are colonial tools, not just representations of land and sea, but instruments of ownership and oppression,' says Tanya Ruka, executive director of Native Land Digital, an Indigenous-led nonprofit mapping organization. Ruka belongs to the Ngati Pakau, a subtribe of the Ngapuhi tribe from the Hokianga, a region known as the Far North of the North Island in Aotearoa, the Māori name for New Zealand. 'Those in power may change maps, but this doesn't alter the stories of the land or waters.'
While Denali's name has been federally designated to Mount McKinley, Wright says she hopes that in practice, 'everyone realizes that the mountain's name is Denali and nothing else.'
Place names can be powerful pathways to greater truths; they have the capacity to tell important stories about land, people, culture, and history. They also have the power to harm and perpetuate injustice and oppression, according to TWS and NATHPO. In recent years, the movement to remove offensive, racist, and arbitrary names of places and landmarks and designate new ones that are inclusive, equitable, and honoring of cultural diversity has grown. For example, in November 2021, US Secretary of Interior Deb Haaland launched a legislative campaign to change derogatory names on federal lands and declared the word 'squaw'—a slur against Native American women—a derogatory term. The campaign led the Fresno Country town formerly known as Squaw Valley in California to change its name to Yokuts Valley in January 2023; yokuts translates to people.
'We live in this area, we die in this area. We become this area… The map is us.'
Tanya Ruka (Ngati Pakau, Ngapuhi, Māori First Nations, Aotearoa NZ)
For Ruka, maps are much more than a physical or digital representation of a place—they document a community's relationship with the land. 'When it comes to Indigenous mapping, because we were based in oral stories and oral histories, our mapping is more like connection," she says, noting that in Māori culture, individuals introduce their personal names along with the name of their homeland. 'The name of the mountain and the river [come] before your ancestral names. It's about genealogy. You're part of that place. We live in this area, we die in this area. We become this area. Our elders used to be able to trace that history back through ancestors to the land itself. The map is us.'
Public lands like national parks are often sacred areas for their original inhabitants. 'They're always places of beauty and awe,' says Ruka. 'You can stand and feel the energy and the power of the place. It's really important for people to understand what they're feeling in that space because a lot of times those areas have some really big stories—like creation stories—attached to them.'
Native Land Digital, whose map is an ever-evolving document updated through crowdsourced information from tribal communities, will soon start to implement changes that go beyond names, boundaries, and ownership. 'We're really hoping to change the way that maps are viewed,' says Ruka. The long-term project will focus on visualizing the feelings and thoughts that Indigenous communities associate with land, allowing them to share their stories as they see fit. 'It'll probably look more like a universe or galaxy than an actual map,' she says.
For Miller, who is a a Little Shell Chippewa tribal member and a direct descendent of Menominee and Stockbridge-Munsee Mohican Nations, a place's name holds a community's history and ancestral knowledge, connecting past, present, and future generations. 'The name could be cultural, spiritual, knowledge-based, commemorative—there are so many reasons that we connect with a place,' she says. 'To know some of this history is to transcend time itself. And isn't that why we travel? To unite as people, to experience and celebrate new and different cultures, and to learn about a history other than our own. Incorporating the rich diversity and history of a place in that introduction allows people to make a lasting connection to the land.'
Originally Appeared on Condé Nast Traveler
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