Gulf of Mexico renamed to Gulf of America on Google Maps baselayer

General
108

OK, thanks for explaining!

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109

Does Google decree the name of Deutschland, Nihon or a score of other places described by exonyms? South of Adelaide is a small cape officially called ‘Witton Bluff’, but Google Earth calls it by the French name ‘Cap Stephanie’. Presumably Baudin assigned the French name after Flinders had assigned the English name, but Google cares not for official protocol.

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110

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/feb/14/alaska-denali-name-senate-bill

111

Even in the US it is only correct in the sense that the government uses it, I think “Gulf of Mexico” has more use in speech even in the US

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112

Witton Bluff was probably missing from the map that Google uploaded.
Is there any signage there? You can take a photo of it and add Witton Bluff to Google Maps.
The other option is to talk to your local council and they can contact Google - they might ask for a different name though.

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115

As I said in my flagged comment above, along with some other things: Gulf of the Americas is a name I could potentially support and might be acceptable in any language. But that’s likely not an option.

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116

Now Apple Maps (and thus inat’s Iphone app) uses Gulf of America as well. At least it’s consistent now

117

Hid a few more off-topic posts. I’m going to close this topic until more changes on the iNat end, it’s become a moderation chore and there isn’t much more to be said, I don’t think, until iNat is able to potentially serve up better localized maps depending on network affiliation or locale, which should hopefully display both names for many users. But I don’t think there’s going to be a resolution that satisfies everyone.

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