On Aug. 27, 2026, President Donald Trump issued an executive order renaming Lake Ontario “Lake America,” claiming his administration had already “notified all of the various people you have to notify.” The name change, which Ontario Premier Doug Ford had dismissed as rhetoric when it was first suggested, comes amid an escalating trade war with Canada. Of course, this isn’t the first time Trump has renamed a location. In 2025 he issued an executive order to rename the Gulf of Mexico the Gulf of America and return Alaska’s Denali, the tallest peak in the country, to being called Mount McKinley.
While for some such renaming might seem less important than the big problems the country faces, there is a formal process in the United States for renaming places, and that process is taken seriously. Usually, so people don’t get confused, the government uses official, agreed-upon names. In the U.S., place names are standardized by the U.S.
Board on Geographic Names, which is part of the U.S. Geological Survey, the agency in charge of making maps. In his previous executive order, Trump asked the Board on Geographic Names “to honor the contributions of visionary and patriotic Americans” and change its policies and procedures to reflect that.
Usually, renaming a place starts locally. The people in the state or county propose a name change and gather support. The process in each state is different.
In 2018, Minnesota changed the name of a large lake in Minneapolis to Bde Maka Ska, which the Minneapolis Park Board described as “a Dakota name for the lake that has been passed down in oral history for many years.” The board voted to change the name and took its request to the county commissioners. When the county agreed, the request was then sent to the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, which made it official for Minnesota. Then, the state of Minnesota sent the request to the Board on Geographic Names, which made it official for the entire U.S.
It’s a lot of paperwork for something so seemingly minor, but people get passionate about place names. It took 40 years to rename Denali from the name established in the late 19th century, Mount McKinley. The state of Alaska requested the name change in 1975, but the Board on Geographic Names didn’t take action.
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