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Yes. We had the same comments about Gulf of America. Edit: I don't know that there's an actual database served up by the US Gov, but governments control the na

Yes. We had the same comments about Gulf of America. Edit: I don't know that there's an actual database served up by the US Gov, but governments control the naming of these things within their own jurisdictions. All of the big mapping products have the ability to serve up different names based on where you're viewing from. And Apple just renamed: https://apnews.com/article/apple-lake-ontario-america-google-14abb66fe0ecfa05bffd42fb083dc70d https://apnews.com/article/apple-lake-ontario-america-google...

ericmay 1mo ago
[flagged]
- nancyminusone 1mo ago
  So unimportant that you just have to comment on how unimportant it is
  - ericmay 1mo ago
    It’s so unimportant folks are commenting on my comment about how unimportant it is!
TazeTSchnitzel 1mo ago
https://edits.nationalmap.gov/apps/gaz-domestic/public/search/names https://edits.nationalmap.gov/apps/gaz-domestic/public/searc... GNIS, Geographic Names Information System (Which still shows Lake Ontario for me as I write this. The body of water along the US's southern coast is Gulf of America however.)
- michchinn 1mo ago
  > Per Secretarial Order 3453, Lake Ontario has been renamed to Lake America. The basemaps for GNIS are in the process of being updated to reflect this name change. I see this on the top bar
- jonas21 1mo ago
  The database entry was updated to "Lake America" on August 27: https://edits.nationalmap.gov/apps/gaz-domestic/public/search/names/970427 https://edits.nationalmap.gov/apps/gaz-domestic/public/searc... GNIS renders their own static map tiles, so it may take a while for the update to be reflected on the map itself.
biophysboy 1mo ago
It makes perfect sense that govs control names within their jurisdiction - I am eyerolling at both the name change and the reaction. I am curious though - is it convention to leave the data as is, or is it illegal to modify it? Regardless, itll just be changed back in 2 years; as long as I can type "lake ontario" and get directed to Lake Ontario, I do not care at all what the gov database calls it currently.
- sixothree 1mo ago
  I wouldn't exactly describe one person as "the government".
  - biophysboy 1mo ago
    I mean ... currently I would? The environment will be different soon
  - ThoseWhoSquirm 1mo ago
    The president is the government as far as assigning or altering place names is concerned, but only for names not established by an act of Congress. That's why Trump was able to change the name of Denali back to Mount McKinkley; he was simply reversing an Obama-era executive order. But he couldn't rename Denali National Park because that was established by Congress.
- watwut 1mo ago
  > I am eyerolling at both the name change and the reaction. Why do you expect meek reaction in a rename like this? What is eye rolling over reacting to this particular rename?
  - biophysboy 1mo ago
    Well, because I expect this to last for two years. Nobody likes it except for birthday boy and his sycophants. All of the signs around Lake Ontario still say the name; same goes for the people that live by it. Google should override it but I don’t expect them to, because theyre selfish and suck. Only thing to do is win elections.
wbl 1mo ago
The government does not control the words you or I use to refer to things.
j2kun 1mo ago
It would be nice if Maps would prefer data from government DBs that have localized versions of foreign place name data (e.g., Germany's BKG) when available.
bigstrat2003 1mo ago
> governments control the naming of these things within their own jurisdictions No they don't. People can, and should, call things what they want without deference to government overreach.
- ThoseWhoSquirm 1mo ago
  We can do that for ourselves, but it's a lot harder for the operator of a massive maps platform, based from its inception on the use of the federally controlled GNIS, to just call things what they want, or even what most of their users want things to be called. For once I'm posting about this in a forum where I can reasonably expect that most users will understand the technical difficulties that would arise if Google wanted to avoid using the new names. The average person seems to believe that Google can change the toponyms back to Gulf of Mexico and Lake Ontario as easily as taking down a road sign and nailing up a different one.

ericmay 1mo ago

[flagged]

nancyminusone 1mo ago
So unimportant that you just have to comment on how unimportant it is
- ericmay 1mo ago
  It’s so unimportant folks are commenting on my comment about how unimportant it is!

TazeTSchnitzel 1mo ago

https://edits.nationalmap.gov/apps/gaz-domestic/public/search/names https://edits.nationalmap.gov/apps/gaz-domestic/public/searc... GNIS, Geographic Names Information System (Which still shows Lake Ontario for me as I write this. The body of water along the US's southern coast is Gulf of America however.)

michchinn 1mo ago
> Per Secretarial Order 3453, Lake Ontario has been renamed to Lake America. The basemaps for GNIS are in the process of being updated to reflect this name change. I see this on the top bar
jonas21 1mo ago
The database entry was updated to "Lake America" on August 27: https://edits.nationalmap.gov/apps/gaz-domestic/public/search/names/970427 https://edits.nationalmap.gov/apps/gaz-domestic/public/searc... GNIS renders their own static map tiles, so it may take a while for the update to be reflected on the map itself.

biophysboy 1mo ago

It makes perfect sense that govs control names within their jurisdiction - I am eyerolling at both the name change and the reaction. I am curious though - is it convention to leave the data as is, or is it illegal to modify it? Regardless, itll just be changed back in 2 years; as long as I can type "lake ontario" and get directed to Lake Ontario, I do not care at all what the gov database calls it currently.

sixothree 1mo ago
I wouldn't exactly describe one person as "the government".
- biophysboy 1mo ago
  I mean ... currently I would? The environment will be different soon
- ThoseWhoSquirm 1mo ago
  The president is the government as far as assigning or altering place names is concerned, but only for names not established by an act of Congress. That's why Trump was able to change the name of Denali back to Mount McKinkley; he was simply reversing an Obama-era executive order. But he couldn't rename Denali National Park because that was established by Congress.
watwut 1mo ago
> I am eyerolling at both the name change and the reaction. Why do you expect meek reaction in a rename like this? What is eye rolling over reacting to this particular rename?
- biophysboy 1mo ago
  Well, because I expect this to last for two years. Nobody likes it except for birthday boy and his sycophants. All of the signs around Lake Ontario still say the name; same goes for the people that live by it. Google should override it but I don’t expect them to, because theyre selfish and suck. Only thing to do is win elections.

wbl 1mo ago

The government does not control the words you or I use to refer to things.

j2kun 1mo ago

It would be nice if Maps would prefer data from government DBs that have localized versions of foreign place name data (e.g., Germany's BKG) when available.

bigstrat2003 1mo ago

> governments control the naming of these things within their own jurisdictions No they don't. People can, and should, call things what they want without deference to government overreach.

ThoseWhoSquirm 1mo ago
We can do that for ourselves, but it's a lot harder for the operator of a massive maps platform, based from its inception on the use of the federally controlled GNIS, to just call things what they want, or even what most of their users want things to be called. For once I'm posting about this in a forum where I can reasonably expect that most users will understand the technical difficulties that would arise if Google wanted to avoid using the new names. The average person seems to believe that Google can change the toponyms back to Gulf of Mexico and Lake Ontario as easily as taking down a road sign and nailing up a different one.