Overview

• President Trump issued an executive order to rename the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America and Denali to Mount McKinley, citing a desire to honor American history.
• The U.S. Department of the Interior announced that the changes would be effective immediately for federal use, with updates underway in the Geographic Names Information System.
• Alaska's Indigenous communities and state leaders strongly oppose reverting Denali's name, emphasizing its cultural significance and its recognition under the Obama administration in 2015.
• Renaming the Gulf of Mexico presents international challenges, as the U.S. cannot enforce the name change beyond its territorial waters or compel other countries to adopt it.
• The U.S. Board on Geographic Names, responsible for standardizing place names, plays a key role in the process, but local, state, and tribal input is typically integral to such decisions.