Google Maps Renames Lake Ontario for US Users

Google Maps has made a change to the naming of Lake Ontario, one of the Great Lakes in North America. According to Google's blog post on August 30, 2026, users in the United States will now see the lake referred to as 'Lake America', while those in Canada and other parts of the world will continue to see it labeled as 'Lake Ontario'. This change is due to a policy followed by Google Maps, which aligns with official government sources. Specifically, the US Geographic Names Information System (GNIS) has made the switch, and Google Maps has followed suit.

The decision to use different names for users in different countries reflects what happened last year when President Donald Trump signed an order renaming the 'Gulf of Mexico' as the 'Gulf of America'. Similar to Lake Ontario, users in the United States will see the Gulf referred to by its new name, while those elsewhere will continue to see it labeled as 'Gulf of Mexico'.

Google Maps determines a user's country location based on multiple factors, including their device settings and network information. Users can also manually select their region through Google's Search setting or device location setting.