PA Lawmaker Proposes Renaming Lake Erie ‘Lake Pennsylvania’

The name game continues as a Republican lawmaker is floating the idea of changing the name of Lake Erie to “Lake Pennsylvania.”

State Rep. David Maloney, who represents Pennsylvania’s 130th Legislative District in Berks County, said the state’s economy and identity are increasingly connected to its only Great Lake.

As a result, he is preparing a resolution urging President Donald Trump, Congress and Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum to change the lake’s name, according to a Sept. 8 press release.

Maloney said Pennsylvanians go to the lake for boating, fishing and family visits — and spend money there. He also cited Pennsylvania Sea Grant research, saying Pennsylvania stocked almost 500,000 yearling steelhead in 2025, about 40% of those stocked across the lake.

“Ohio has plenty of shoreline. New York already has two Great Lakes. Canada has four others,” Maloney said.

Maloney’s proposal comes on the heels of Trump declaring Lake Ontario to be renamed "Lake America" as the United States' trade conflict with Canada continues.

"The press release explains how Pennsylvanians’ care of their great lake draws other lake state residents to it for recreation and world class fishing. Be proud and own it,” Maloney's office told Newsweek.

Lake Erie’s name comes from the Indigenous people who lived along its southern shore when Europeans reached the area in the early 1600s, according to the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy.

Erie is a shortened form of the Iroquoian word “Erielhonan,” meaning “long tail” and referring to the eastern cougar.