Posted on 01/26/2025 5:50:12 AM PST by DoodleBob
President Donald Trump’s executive order to rename the Gulf of Mexico and Alaska’s Denali, the tallest peak in the country, has resulted in lots of discussion. While for some, such renaming might seem less important than the big problems the country faces, there is a formal process in the United States for renaming places, and that process is taken seriously.
Usually, so people don’t get confused, official, agreed-upon names are used by the government. In the U.S., place names are standardized by the U.S. Board on Geographic Names, which is part of the U.S. Geological Survey, the agency in charge of making maps.
In his executive order, Trump asks the Board on Geographic Names “to honor the contributions of visionary and patriotic Americans” and change its policies and procedures to reflect that.
Usually, renaming a place starts locally. The people in the state or county propose a name change and gather support. The process in each state is different.
Minnesota recently changed the name of a large lake in Minneapolis to Bde Maka Ska, which the Minneapolis Park Board described as “a Dakota name for the lake that has been passed down in oral history for many years.”
The board voted to change the name and took its request to the county commissioners. When the county agreed, the request was then sent to the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, which made it official for Minnesota. Then, the state of Minnesota sent the request to the Board on Geographic Names, which made it official for the entire U.S.
It’s a lot of paperwork for something so seemingly minor, but people get passionate about place names. It took 40 years to rename Denali from the name established in the late 19th century, Mount McKinley.
The state of Alaska requested the name change in 1975, but the Board on Geographic Names didn’t take action. Members of the Ohio congressional delegation – President William McKinley was from Ohio – objected over many years to requests to rename the mountain, and the board did not act on those requests.
The president appoints the secretary of the Interior Department. The secretary works with the heads of related agencies to appoint the Board on Geographic Names. Current committee policy states, “Input from State geographic names authorities, land management agencies, local governments, and Tribal Governments are actively pursued.”
In 2015, President Barack Obama named a new leader for the Department of the Interior, Sally Jewell. Just as Obama made a trip to Alaska in late August 2015, Jewell declared the name change official under a law that allows the secretary of the Interior to change a name if the board doesn’t act on the proposal in a “reasonable” amount of time.
“This name change recognizes the sacred status of Denali to many Alaska Natives,” Jewell said. “The name Denali has been official for use by the State of Alaska since 1975, but even more importantly, the mountain has been known as Denali for generations. With our own sense of reverence for this place, we are officially renaming the mountain Denali in recognition of the traditions of Alaska Natives and the strong support of the people of Alaska.”
If someone objects to a name change, they could ask the courts to rule on whether the name change was made legally. Going back to Bde Maka Ska, some people objected to changing the name from Lake Calhoun, so they took the state natural resources agency to court. Eventually, the Minnesota Supreme Court ruled that the name change was done correctly.
Alaska’s two U.S. senators and prominent state figures have strongly objected to Trump’s renaming attempt.
Renaming the Gulf of Mexico is a different kind of case, however, from renaming a geographic place within U.S. borders.
The gulf is not within the territorial U.S. On the coast, the first 12 miles from shore are considered part of that country, but outside of that is international waters.
The Board on Geographic Names could change the name to Gulf of America on official U.S. maps, but there is no international board in charge of place names. Each country decides what to call places. And there is no official way for the U.S. to make other countries change the name.
It’s possible that the U.S. could formally ask other countries to change the name, or even impose sanctions against countries that don’t comply.
If the names were officially changed in the U.S., the government would use the new names in official documents, signage and maps. As for all the people and companies in the world that make maps, they usually use the official names. But there is nothing that would force them to, if they believed that a certain name is more widely recognized.
On Jan. 24, 2025, the U.S. Department of the Interior issued a statement on the name changes:
“In accordance with President Donald J. Trump’s recent executive order, the Department of the Interior is proud to announce the implementation of name restorations that honor the legacy of American greatness, with efforts already underway.
"As directed by the President, the Gulf of Mexico will now officially be known as the Gulf of America and North America’s highest peak will once again bear the name Mount McKinley….The U.S. Board on Geographic Names, under the purview of the Department of the Interior, is working expeditiously to update the official federal nomenclature in the Geographic Names Information System to reflect these changes, effective immediately for federal use.”
Murkowski had McKinley renamed to Denali for politics...turns out none of the Eskimos tribes had called it that - but they all had different names for it....
Greenfield wrote a good article on it.
We call any place what we want to call it, the international community be damned.
Do we follow what the natives say about Deutschland, Misr, Nippon?
Or do we call them what we want?
And is it still Constantinople? Ceylon? The Gulf of Siam? Burma?
Your comment is spot on. He DID change the name and he can change the name. They just don’t like it.
The answer to your questions is “YES!”
Why can’t they just call the mountain Denali or Mount Denali and the park McKinley National Park?
Denali - Trump has as much power to change the name as Obama had
Gulf of Mexico - this could wind up being a place with two names, like the Persian Gulf (called the Arabian Gulf in Arab countries)
Sea of Japan - call the East Sea in Korea
I don’t recall all these chin-rubbing concerns being raised when Obama all of a sudden renamed Mt. McKinley to Mt. Denali.
All “boards” and such are another means of putting bureaucrat “experts” over and above the people.
Agree with mostly everything that Trump is doing but renaming the Gulf of Mexico. I say just leave it alone as history. Should we rename the state of New Mexico as well? Let’s not get too thin-skinned on all the stuff that doesn’t have much impact. Bigger fish to fry.
If it’s not legal, then it wasn’t legal for Obama to do it.
It didn’t bother the world or cartographers when they eliminated Israel from the maps of the middle east. I say go for it. And actually large portions of the Gulf are considered U.S. territorial waters. So why not? Gulf of America honors both continents and lies between them. How did one lone country get to name it after itself?
With all the much bigger problems we have, why are we wasting our time and energy on this?
On the other hand, maybe he’s just as pissed off as the rest of us at all the things that have been renamed and he’s just making a point.
How is "Bde" pronounced -- it is like "bidet"?
Did you read the article, attached in its entirety so you didn’t even have to click a link? According to the article Alaska had been trying to get the name changed back to Denali since 1975. And Americans were about evenly split on renaming military bases named after confederates.
Nah, the Caribbean Sea borders the north coast of South America. The Gulf of America touches only the shores of the U.S., Mexico and Cuba.
At first, I thought it would sound better if called the "Gulf of the Americas", but the Gulf is bordered in the south by the Yucatan Channel that runs between Yucatan and Cuba, below which is the Caribbean Sea, and then South America.
When I was a contractor, I often offered clients three options. If a client was difficult or oppositional by nature, I would campaign for the one I liked the least, knowing he would probably shoot it down. That gave me the best shot at getting either the first or second one that I actually wanted.
Trump has learned a lot about distracting the negative chatterers by plumping up a non-issue—so that he can do the more complex things that the media can't be bothered to research or understand.
Warning: This is not for the faint of heart!
Yes, indeed!
Leftist.
LOL. Did I say something untrue? You’re so sensitive, like a little snowflake.
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