Microsoft confirms it will change name of Gulf of Mexico to Gulf of America on Bing Maps (Update)

Is it the Gulf of Mexico or Gulf of America? Well, that depends on who you ask. Disagreement on the name of the body of water does not just occur among political enemies, there's also a difference of opinion across map services. Google Maps and Apple Maps now show "Gulf of America." Bing Maps will soon join them in showing the new name for the body of water, though only for users in the United States.

Debate over the name of the body of water kicked off when President Donald Trump announced plans to rename the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America. At the time, the President also discussed renaming Mount Denali, annexing Canada, wanting Greenland to become part of the United States, and the United States reclaiming the Panama Canal. But I'll focus on the first here, since map debates are oh so invigorating.

President Trump has since declared the body of water the Gulf of America and made February 9 Gulf of America Day.

"As my Administration restores American pride in the history of American greatness, it is fitting and appropriate for our great Nation to come together and commemorate this momentous occasion and the renaming of the Gulf of America," said President Trump.

We'll have to wait to see if Gulf of America Day appears on Google Calendar. Pride Month, Black History Month, and Women's History Month no longer appear on Google Calendar. Google claimed that "maintaining hundreds of moments manually and consistently globally wasn’t scalable or sustainable," so surely the tech giant will find a calendar showing Gulf of America Day to be untenable.

With the Gulf of America officially declared as the name for the body of water, arguments ensued over if the name should appear on maps. Apple Maps and Google Maps seem to be shifting gradually and depending on where a user is. Bing Maps will do the same.

Without comment from Microsoft, I'm not sure if Bing Maps showing "Gulf of Mexico" exclusively is a political statement or a reflection of how frequently the service's information gets updated. I have reached out to Microsoft about the Gulf of Mexico name debate and how Bing Maps is updated.

How does Bing Maps get its data?

Bing Maps gets information from several sources. A blog post from 2020 explained that using a combination of providers helps the map service evolve over time and provide the best experience. That post explained that all of TomTom's map and traffic data was to be incorporated into Bing Maps, though I have not found an update regarding the status of that project.

Who names bodies of water?

The US federal government can dictate how the government refers to a body of water. Companies such as Google, Microsoft, and Apple set their own policies. The Gulf of Mexico is not the first body of water to have its name disputed or to have multiple names. For example, the same body of water that appears as the "Sea of Japan" on Google Maps if you're in Japan will appear as the "East Sea" if you're in South Korea.

Google has a blog post from way back in 2008 discussing how it determines the names of bodies of water. That post states:

"Under this policy, the English Google Earth client displays the primary, common, local name(s) given to a body of water by the sovereign nations that border it. If all bordering countries agree on the name, then the common single name is displayed (e.g. "Caribbean Sea" in English, "Mar Caribe" in Spanish, etc.). But if different countries dispute the proper name for a body of water, our policy is to display both names, with each label placed closer to the country or countries that use it."

I have not found a similar post from Microsoft regarding its naming policies. I'll update this piece with any information Microsoft shares.

The company did share a statement on the current situation:

"We are committed to providing users with accurate and up-to-date information. In accordance with established product policies, we are updating Bing Maps to reflect the Geographic Names Information System’s nomenclature in the United States which includes changing the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America in the US."

Some users in the United States have shared with me that they already see the change.