Trump says he will change the name of the Gulf of Mexico

President Donald Trump stated on Tuesday that he would aim to rename the Gulf of Mexico to the "Gulf of America" because the name has a "beautiful sound to it."

the Panama Canal.

Here's a closer look at his thoughts and what makes up a person's name.

It's been reported that President Trump has brought up the idea of renaming the Gulf of Mexico.

during his first term.

The Gulf of Mexico is commonly known as America's "Third Coast" due to the stretch of coastline that falls across five southern states. Locals in Mexico refer to it as "El Golfo de México," using the Spanish name for the gulf.

Americans and Mexicans have different names for a significant body of water bordering Texas and the Mexican states of Chihuahua, Coahuila, Nuevo Leon and Tamaulipas. While Americans refer to this river as the Rio Grande, Mexicans call it the Rio Bravo.

Can the President change the name of the Gulf of Mexico?

It's a possibility, but the outcome depends on other countries' cooperation, not just one country's choice.

The International Hydrographic Organization, of which the United States and Mexico are both part, aims to map and equally name all of the world's seas, oceans, and navigable waterways. There are instances where countries identify the same body of water or landmark under different names within their own records.

It's often easier for countries to manage landmarks or bodies of water that are contained within their borders. In 2015, former President Barack Obama signed a directive from the Department of the Interior to rename North America's highest peak, Mount McKinley, to Denali, a move that President Trump has also stated he aims to undo.

Reacting to Trump's comments on Tuesday, Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene expressed her intention to instruct her staff to work on legislation aiming to rename the Gulf of Mexico, a move that would reportedly address the need for updated maps and administrative materials at various government levels.

How did the Gulf of Mexico get its name? The Gulf of Mexico was named after the gulf-bearing aspect of the body of water, which was originally called the "Gulfe in Mexique" by the Spanish explorer Juan Ponce de León in 1519. This name is derived from the Italian explorer Amerigo Vespucci's usage of the term "México" to refer to the mainland, which would eventually become part of Mexico but at the time was unknown to him.

This body of water has been referred to by that name for over four centuries, with its origins tracing back to an original name possibly inspired by a Native American city called “Mexico”.

Has the possibility of renaming the Gulf of Mexico ever been considered or discussed before?

In 2012, a state senator from Mississippi proposed a bill to give a different name to the Gulf of Mexico coastline within that state's borders. In the same year, the senator himself described the bill as a "joke." However, the bill never advanced from committee consideration.

Stephen Colbert, a comedian, had made a joke on his show two years prior, referencing the devastating Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. He suggested renaming the Gulf "Gulf of America," humorously saying, "We broke it, we bought it."

Are there other countries that have disagreements over the names of geographic locations?

There has been a longstanding controversy over the name of the Sea of Japan, with Japan, North Korea, South Korea, and Russia having different opinions on the matter. South Korea's argument is that the current name for the body of water was not widely used until Korea was under Japanese control. At a 2020 meeting of the International Hydrographic Organization, representatives from member countries agreed on a proposal to replace place names with numerical identifiers and create a new digital standard for modern geographic information systems.

The area known as the Persian Gulf has been referred to by that name for over 400 years; however, within the Middle East, many countries commonly use "Gulf" and "Arabian Gulf" to describe it.

There have been other discussions about bodies of water, such as one brought up by Donald Trump's 2016 opponent. As disclosed by WikiLeaks through a hack into her campaign chairman's personal account, Hillary Clinton informed an audience in 2013 that, according to China's reasoning which claimed most of the South China Sea, the U.S. could have called the Pacific Ocean the "American Sea" following World War II.

___