A historic body of water got a name change this year as the Gulf of Mexico has officially been renamed the new Gulf of America after a recent executive order released by President Trump.
On January 20th, 2025, President Trump signed the Executive Order 14172 (“Restoring Names That Honor American Greatness”), that officially renamed the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America. This new name is not only limited to America but extends internationally although countries claim they won’t recognize this change.
This change has been a very controversial subject and seems to have sparked conflict to many as they see the change as “unnecessary” due to this conflict countries like Britain refuse to acknowledge the change.
“The name thing to me seems, it seems like it’s another effort to fight what I consider to be a cultural war, ” said geography teacher Johnathan Souliske.
This move was allegedly due to President Trump’s “America First” agenda which shows in some of his more recent actions. So far no one has any intentions on changing the name back to it so for now it shall remain. The new name will most likely be staying in the near future after President Trump’s term is up but it may depend on the party of the next president.
A Theory has been going around that the reason that Trump made the change was due to one of the bans that former President Biden made banning offshore drilling in the Gulf of Mexico. The way this bypass would work is that the law said “Gulf of Mexico” and not “Gulf of America”.
“Without going into any political sides, I do foresee it in the future being changed back,” said Lee
The Gulf of Mexico was originally named this in 1550 by Spanish explorers. The name has stayed constant for a little less than 500 years till now. This is a big reason why some countries refuse to acknowledge the change.
“I don’t think it’s really that significant of a change, I think in the grand scheme of things it doesn’t matter too much” said Souliske.
“I get the whole idea to an extent but I think the whole idea of naming arbitrary physical features across the planet doesn’t have any real impact,” said social studies teacher Logan Lee.
So far with the name change the opinions seem to differ worldwide and be a really controversial topic all around the globe with mixed reactions. This choice has definitely ignited debates all over the world over whether it is necessary to rename a geographic location that has been around for so long.
