U.S. President Donald Trump signed an executive order in 2025 that officially renamed Lake Ontario to "Lake America." The change was part of a broader initiative to rename geographic features with names that reflect American heritage or identity. The move sparked a range of responses, particularly among digital mapping companies, which had to decide whether to follow the new names or keep the traditional ones. Google Maps announced it would update its U.S. maps to reflect the new name, aligning with the U.S. Geographic Names Information System (GNIS), the official authority on place names in the country. In contrast, Apple Maps chose to keep the name "Lake Ontario," and the Secretary of the Interior, Doug Burgum, claimed that Trump had personally reached out to Apple to request the change. MapQuest, a long-standing online mapping service, also decided to keep the original name, which led to a dramatic increase in user downloads and app popularity. MapQuest’s decision to resist the name change stood out, as it contrasted with Google’s compliance. The app climbed to the top of navigation app rankings in the U.S. and Canada, with its user base growing by 50 times the usual number. MapQuest also launched a satirical campaign in response to the controversy, offering a website where users could create custom maps with alternative names for the Gulf of Mexico. This followed a similar executive order in January 2025 that aimed to rename the Gulf of Mexico to "Gulf of America" and restore the name "Mount McKinley" to Denali. During the ceremony where Lake Ontario was officially renamed, a large map of the Great Lakes was displayed, with a red arrow pointing to Lake Ontario and the phrase "Make the Great Lakes even greater" included. The controversy has led to mixed public reactions, with some users praising MapQuest for preserving familiar names, while others criticized Google for complying with the name change. The differing approaches by mapping companies highlight the broader debate over the balance between government authority and user preferences in digital spaces.