Trump won’t rename ocean, thanks to Google

Saman Shafiq

USA TODAY

President Donald Trump says Google Maps discouraged him from renaming the Atlantic Ocean to Trump Ocean.

Boasting a list of all the locations he has renamed, Trump said during an Oct. 21 rally in Clemson, South Carolina, that he was keen on renaming an ocean until Google CEO Sundar Pichai told him not to.

"I only like two oceans − the Atlantic Ocean and the Pacific Ocean," Trump said. "I’m not going to put either Trump or America on any other ocean but these two. So, we seriously looked at the Atlantic Ocean and I called Google Maps, who were really great with the Lake [America], and I spoke to a brilliant guy, Sundar [Pichai)]. He heads all of Google. He’s a brilliant guy."

Joking that Google is still "rattled from the Gulf [of America]," Trump said he pitched his plan to rename the ocean and asked them if they can "handle it."

"No, no, no, this time I’m not doing it, he [Pichai] said," Trump said. "He said, ‘Oceans are different, sir. They cover a lot of countries. Please don’t ask us to do that.’"

"So, I’ll probably pass," Trump said, before asking the crowd their thoughts. "I think let’s keep it the Atlantic Ocean."

A president can direct how U.S. government agencies refer to geographic features through executive action. But any name change would generally apply only to federal government usage and would not be binding internationally.

That’s especially true for the Atlantic and Pacific, which border multiple countries and have long-established names recognized around the world.

There is no international authority that could require other countries to adopt a new U.S.-designated name.

Google, in an earlier statement to USA TODAY, said that it adheres to official government names when it comes to geographical names within a country.

The navigation service has previously updated the Gulf of Mexico to Gulf of America and Lake Ontario to Lake America in the U.S as part of the "long-standing practice."

"We have a longstanding practice of applying name changes when they have been updated in official government sources," Google had said.

The Geographic Names Information System, which is under the United States Geological Survey, provides the names used in Google Maps.

"When official names vary between countries, Maps users see their official local name," Google said. "Everyone in the rest of the world sees both names."

An example of this practice is the Sea of Japan, or the East Sea, a name disputed between Japan and South Korea. In Google Maps in the United States, the sea is designated as the Sea of Japan (East Sea).

The proposal to change the name of an ocean was part of Trump’s push to rebrand prominent geographic landmarks.

In addition to changing Lake Ontario and the Gulf of Mexico to Lake America and the Gulf of America, respectively, Trump’s administration restored Fort Liberty’s former name, Fort Bragg, and changed the nation’s highest peak from Denali back to Mount McKinley.

Contributing: Joey Garrison, Kinsey Crowley and Fernando Cervantes Jr., USA TODAY

President Donald Trump told a rally in South Carolina on Oct. 21 that he mulled renaming the Atlantic Ocean.

Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images file