I don’t want my map showing this farce of gulf of America. I’d like it to show the correct name, Gulf of Mexico. I’d like to change it back?
iPhone XR, iOS 16
Lawrence Finch wrote:
It’s not actually even the middle; the US “owns” less than half of the gulf; about 45%. The balance is divided between Mexico and Cuba (and a couple of small countries).
In the government's defence, the executive order clearly describes this, "rename as the “Gulf of America” the U.S. Continental Shelf area bounded on the northeast, north, and northwest by the States of Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida and extending to the seaward boundary with Mexico and Cuba in the area formerly named as the Gulf of Mexico."
This next sentence is interesting too, "The Secretary shall subsequently update the GNIS to reflect the renaming of the Gulf and remove all references to the Gulf of Mexico from the GNIS, consistent with applicable law."
You can lookup these features on the GNIS. This is clearly a US-centric database. It ignores the rest of the world. When I search for "Bay of Fundy", I get a result that is most definitely NOT the Bay of Fundy.
But of all the ultimate ironies here, if you check the actual continental shelf on the US government's own Continental Shelf project and compare that to the actual label position of "Gulf of America" on both Google Maps and Apple Maps, you can see that both Google and Apple have done it wrong. They are both labelling the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America. By that I mean the actual label position is just outside of the boundary of the Gulf of America.
But of course, everyone is trying to make a political point by virtue signalling how much they don't like President Trump. That's a total waste of time. Anyone who has actually read the executive order, and can read a map, can make a strong geographic point that both Google and Apple have labelled the map incorrectly. Now this is not the Google Support Community, so I don't care about Google. How should it look in Apple Maps?
Well, we can start by looking at how the US government itself labels the map. Don't bother checking the GNIS. They have a note stating they haven't fixed it yet. But we can check that State Department site above. This is what their map looks like:
This is correct, folks! For all the trash talk of the US government, they actually can read their own laws and a map. Go figure.
But Apple needs our help. We can overlay the correct government map on top of Apple Maps to see the problem:
This is how it should be labelled on Apple Maps:
(This is just an example. My labels aren't correct either but I'm constrained by transparency and other labels. But this is the right idea.)
If anyone wants to file a bug report citing this correct geographical information, you have my full support.
DieselkW wrote:
The VPN I use didn't change anything, so on my phone and my desktop I changed my location:
Setting>General>Location> change from U.S. to Mexico.
On my phone I also had to then "un-metric" and change ºC to ºF and date formats and such.
LOL! Sometimes I love Americans!
G. Bern wrote:
Apple disabled this option on my Maps. When I try to report it, the "submit" button is dim. Anyone else having this problem?
Have you tried this?
Feedback - Maps for iOS and iPadOS - Apple
travelingwoman333 wrote:
From Wikipedia: "While the Interior Department confirmed that the Gulf of America name was effective for US federal agencies on January 24th, the change does not apply in an international context. Other countries and international bodies are not required to recognize the name change."
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gulf_of_Mexico#Gulf_of_America
Correct. That's why place names vary be region set on the device.
System settings>General>Language and Region> change region to Mexico but leave language "English".
Easy Peasy
According to Apple support the change was made world wide for all Apple users so changing countries or regions will not work. The idea would be to think outside the box. Apple can’t change it but there must be a way to at least give the user a way to cover it up or delete the name on the map.
[Edited by Moderator]
Lalette wrote:
Do you mean go to the iPhone settings or the settings in Apple Maps? Will this work for Google Maps, also? Or if I change my region to Canada?
Yes, if you change your region to Canada (or Mexico) that would work. Of course, you would then need to have a Canada or Mexico address and matching Canadian or Mexican credit cards to use Wallet, and if you have an Apple Card it would be canceled. As I said earlier, if the name of a body of water is the most serious problem we have currently you are not paying attention.
2020helpme wrote:
I want my weather maps changed back to The Gulf of Mexico. Apple does not have to change the map. It’s bogus.
change it back.
Apple does not add the labels in the Maps, they are simply imported from the USGS database for users who have their device region set to the US. Each region has their own source for map data. To make changes to the USGS data, it would require action by Congress, so I would recommend contacting your Congressional Representatives.
CCSilo wrote:
The submit button has been deactivated. Not sure when it was deactivated but it doesn't work on 2/17/2025.
That's right. It has been. Apple is well aware of the change in the USGS data. This is not a mistake.
If you want to submit your personal opinion about the change to Apple, you can do so here:
But really, the people with whom you should be registering your displeasure are your elected representatives.
From Wikipedia: "While the Interior Department confirmed that the Gulf of America name was effective for US federal agencies on January 24th, the change does not apply in an international context. Other countries and international bodies are not required to recognize the name change."
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gulf_of_Mexico#Gulf_of_America
G. Bern wrote:
Apple disabled this option on my Maps. When I try to report it, the "submit" button is dim. Anyone else having this problem?
And Google disabled reporting that same issue several days ago, not sure what the point is. The data used by Maps is provided by the USGS, and to change that it will come from an action by Congress. Have you contacted your Congressional Representative? Reporting the issue to Apple will not force Congress to make that change, you are simply not reporting the issue to the proper location.
The US Government dictates what the correct name is, since much of it is US territorial waters. Every country has naming rights over territorial waters. While you could argue that the US territorial waters component is actually less than the total area (the majority of the gulf is “owned” collectively by Mexico, Cuba, and a couple of smaller countries), each of those countries have naming rights, so Mexico could name the parts bordering on their country as Golfo de México, and Cuba could call theirs Golfo de Cuba.
It was named Gulf of Mexico by Spain 400 years ago, so they might have a claim also; perhaps Golfo de España.
From another point of view, Gulf of America is entirely accurate, because all countries bordering it are collectively America: North America, Central America, South America. So in a way the renaming is the US recognizing that “America” is not a country, it is a geographic area, and the residents of the United States are not Americans, they are USAans.
There is not issue to report. That is the official name of that body of water, whether you like it or not.
The reporting feature only applies to address correction, business information and navigation errors. It does not allow changing geographical names. For example, you can’t change New York to Nieuw Amsterdam. Or Mount Rainier to Tahoma.
You can let Apple know of your dissatisfaction→https://apple.com/feedback, however Apple can’t do anything either unless or until the US government changes it. The ones who can are your representatives and senators, so start by contacting them.
But consider that focusing on this allows your government officials to get away with creating much more serious issues. It’s actually a scam to deflect attention from other activities.
Tom Moerel wrote:
As the Gulf of Mexico renaming has not been approved outside of the USA, I demand you remove Gulf of America for customers outside of the USA. Whatever you want to name it inside the USA just go ahead. But please spare the rest of the world from this megalomaniacal stupidity!!
To the best of my knowledge, Apple has in fact only changed it for people whose region is set to USA. So, Apple is doing exactly what you are so politely requesting.
Seerseer wrote:
I did this, and it went into review and then was dropped. Clearly, Apple is discarding everyone who wants to change back to the correct Gulf of Mexico
Apple is using the information provided to it by the USGS. If you have a problem with the USGS, contact your senator and congress people. Seriously, this is what you pick to worry about right now?
Ecwalkernc wrote:
I’m using old fashioned Mapquest until they change it back permanently foe everyone per UN map guidelines!
The UN map guidelines are, as far as I know, guidelines for how to make maps that are produced by the UN. Individual countries make their own maps and their own decision about what to name things.
Other bodies of water that have different names depending on who makes the map: Persian Gulf/Arabian Sea, Sea of Japan/East Sea, English Channel/La Manche.
It amazes me that, of all the things one could be upset about right now, this is the thing some people fixate on. This is a mere distraction.
i want to switch my maps back to gulf of mexico
