Gulf of Mexico naming controversy

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The Gulf of Mexico became the center of a geographical naming dispute in the United States when U.S. president Donald Trump issued Executive Order 14172 directing U.S. federal agencies to refer to it as the "Gulf of America". Issued on the day of his second inauguration (January 20, 2025), the executive order only requires the U.S. executive branch to use this nomenclature. However, no Act of Congress has been enacted to change the name and federal laws still name the gulf as the Gulf of Mexico, although major online map platforms and some U.S.-based media outlets have voluntarily made the change. A February 2025 poll by Marquette University found that, among 1,018 respondents across the U.S., 71% opposed renaming the Gulf of Mexico and 29% supported the name change. The name "Gulf of Mexico" has been in use since the 1550s, derived from Mexica, the Nahuatl term for the Aztecs. The name soon became internationally recognized, and remains in use by bodies such as the International Hydrographic...

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