According to Open4business, on 27 August, US President Donald Trump signed an executive order renaming Lake Ontario ‘Lake America’.
It is important to note, however, that this does not constitute an international renaming of the lake. Lake Ontario is situated on the border between the US and Canada, and Trump’s executive order applies only to federal agencies and official US geographical names. Canada is under no obligation to recognise the new name and continues to use Lake Ontario.
Under Executive Order No. 14420, the US Secretary of the Interior, together with the US Board on Geographic Names, must, within 30 days, add the name ‘Lake America’ to the federal system of geographical names. Thereafter, the new name is to be used in documents, maps and communications by US federal agencies.
Trump explained this decision by citing the lake’s economic and historical significance to the US. The text of the executive order highlights the lake’s role in American trade, shipping and military history, as well as Washington’s investment in protecting the Great Lakes ecosystem.
The decision was taken against the backdrop of a renewed escalation in trade relations between the US and Canada. Negotiations between the two countries on a trade agreement were suspended on 21 August after Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney stated that the terms proposed by Washington were not in the country’s interests. Canada subsequently announced that it was preparing appropriate trade measures.
The Canadian side did not recognise the renaming. Carney said that in Canada, the body of water would continue to be known as Lake Ontario. The name ‘Ontario’ itself derives from the language of the Indigenous peoples and was in use long before the modern United States and Canada came into existence. When signing the executive order, Trump also authorised further geographical renaming.
‘We have a bay, and now we have a lake. We need an ocean as well,” said the US President, adding that Washington could, in theory, consider a new name for the Atlantic or the Pacific Ocean, or both. As yet, there are no executive orders or official procedures in place for renaming the oceans.
This decision continues the practice of geographical renaming seen during Trump’s second presidential term. In January 2025, he ordered US federal agencies to use the name ‘Gulf of America’ instead of ‘Gulf of Mexico’ and reinstated the name ‘Mount McKinley’ for Denali in Alaska.