Interior Department says Gulf of Mexico now renamed to Gulf of America, Denali to Mount McKinley

The Gulf of Mexico has been renamed to the Gulf of America, the Interior Department announced Friday, while the name of North America’s highest peak, Alaska’s Denali, has been changed back to Mount McKinley, both moves are in response to a controversial executive order signed by President Trump after he took office.

The Interior Department said in a news release that the name changes “reaffirm the Nation’s commitment to preserving the extraordinary heritage of the United States and ensuring that future generations of Americans celebrate the legacy of its heroes and historic assets.”

The department’s U.S. Board on Geographic Names will now be tasked with updating “the official federal nomenclature in the Geographic Names Information System to reflect these changes, effective immediately for federal use,” the agency added.

While the Gulf of America will be applied to federal references, other nations will not be required to recognize the name.

Mexico and the U.S. share a nearly equal number of coastline miles along the gulf. According to the U.S. State Department, the maritime border in the gulf between the U.S. and Mexico begins at the center of the mouth of the Rio Grande, wherever it may be located, and runs in a fixed line. For the most part, the U.S. has maritime jurisdiction over its portion of the Gulf of Mexico while Mexico has jurisdiction over its portion.

During the presidential transition Trump disclosed his plans to change the gulf’s name. In response, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum held a news conference where she stood before a 17th-century world map and jokingly suggested that North America should be renamed “Mexican America.”

In 2015, Mount McKinley was renamed by then-President Barack Obama to Denali, the traditional Native Alaskan name. It had long informally been known in Alaska as Denali, despite the official federal designation being Mount McKinley. 

Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska last month criticized Trump’s plan to change Denali’s name.

“You can’t improve upon the name that Alaska’s Koyukon Athabascans bestowed on North America’s tallest peak, Denali – the Great One,” Murkowski said in a statement. “For years, I advocated in Congress to restore the rightful name for this majestic mountain to respect Alaska’s first people who have lived on these lands for thousands of years. This is an issue that should not be relitigated.”

contributed to this report.