President Donald Trump signed an executive order Thursday directing the federal government to rename Lake Ontario "Lake America," extending his push to put new names on major bodies of water.
According to Fox News, Trump announced the change while signing the order, declaring that the new name was "official, effective immediately." He also joked that the Atlantic and Pacific oceans could eventually receive new names.
"As you know, we took something called the Gulf of Mexico, we changed it, and now it's very routinely the Gulf of America," Trump said.
"So if you think about it, we have a gulf and we have a lake. Now all we need is an ocean," he continued. "So maybe we'll have to change the name of the Atlantic and or the Pacific. Maybe we'll change them both."
The order directs Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, working with the Board on Geographic Names, to update the federal Geographic Names Information System within 30 days.
Federal maps, contracts, documents and agency communications are also supposed to use "Lake America" instead of "Lake Ontario."
Trump said the administration had "filed all the necessary papers, documents, everything else" and notified the relevant parties.
The change applies to the U.S. government's official geographic references. It does not determine what Canada calls the lake, which sits along the border between Canada and New York.
The move follows Trump's earlier effort to rename the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America.
On his first day back in office, he signed Executive Order 14172, "Restoring Names That Honor American Greatness," directing federal agencies to use the new designation.
Trump later proclaimed Feb. 9, 2025, as the first "Gulf of America Day."
The Lake America order argues that the United States has played a major role in protecting and supporting the Great Lakes.
It cites nearly $4 billion in U.S. investment in the Great Lakes freshwater ecosystem over the past decade, along with the Coast Guard's icebreaking fleet.
The order also points to Lake Ontario's role in American trade, settlement, defense, commerce and energy.
"In recognition of this flourishing economic resource and its critical importance to our Nation’s economy and its people, I am directing that the Lake officially be renamed as Lake America," Trump wrote.
His comments about renaming the Atlantic and Pacific appeared to be made in jest. No executive action involving either ocean was announced.