You Can’t Rename Your Way to Respect
Renaming a Great Lake by executive order may change a label on some American maps. It cannot change history, geography, or the diplomatic damage caused by turning a place name into a political taunt.
The naming, and especially renaming, of geographic features typically follows a deliberative process, taking into account history, indigenous peoples, and the views of all stakeholders. In the United States today, retitling is often done on a whim, for political purposes, or out of spite.
President Donald Trump’s decision on August 27 to call Lake Ontario Lake America combined all three impulses. Without inter-agency consultation, the designation was done explicitly as retaliation after trade negotiations with Canada broke down. In line with America’s authoritarian slide, the insult was delivered by executive order – the 276th of Trump’s second presidential term. The norm for his predecessors was about 200 executive orders during a four-year term.
As a former diplomat, I know that many a dispute between nations concerns the labeling of map features. The South Korean embassy once formally expressed their objection to US government maps that referred to the Sea of Japan. Koreans call it the East Sea. In 2014, Korean-American citizens persuaded the state of Virginia to require any newly purchased textbooks to note that the Sea of Japan is also known as the East Sea.
In the Middle East, Iran insists that the body of water to its south is the Persian Gulf, as popularized by Ptolomy in 150 AD. Arab countries insist this body of water be called the Arabian Gulf. My research institute, the London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies, which has a branch office in Bahrain, splits the baby in half by calling it simply “The Gulf.”
Trump’s decision about “Lake America” brought a sharp response from Canada and derision on social media. Prime Minister Mark Carney noted the Indigenous Iroquoian origin of the 400-year-old name Ontario, which means “the lake is beautiful, the lake is big.” Using a word his counterpart would have to look up, he chided America for changing its “hydronyms.”
Across the continent, the relabeling was treated as a joke — at Trump’s expense. Comedian Andy Borowitz mocked that the “Algae-ridden Reflecting Pool” is to be renamed “Lake Trump.” A popular social media meme suggested renaming Lake Michigan, “Lake Epstein.”
Beneath the humor lies umbrage born of affront. There was nothing funny about Trump nicknaming our neighbor the “51st state,” and its leader a “governor.” Insults can have consequences. Witness Carney’s surprise landslide election last year thanks to popular resentment over Trump’s bullying. Trade talks that appeared earlier this week to be revived when the US backed away from demands over Canadian promotion of French language and culture now face a new obstacle. While some day the insults will cease, US diplomats will be burdened for years trying to overcome the damage.
In a normal administration, the State Department and other agencies would weigh in on proposed changes to international geographic features, especially one as big as the first of the Great Lakes. Anyone proposing a name change must provide a “compelling reason.” In this case, there was no evidence of any administrative process. Trump first floated the idea on August 25, then signed the executive order two days later. His claim of Canadian officials’ “nastiness” was hardly compelling, not to mention factual.
Recently, I was lecturing about maps on a cruise ship; a passenger asked me what I called the body of salt water between the US and Mexico. He admitted the question was a test of my political leanings.
Like so much else he does, the President uses map names to sow division.
Mark Fitzpatrick is a retired US diplomat who served as Deputy Assistant Secretary for Non-Proliferation. He is an Associate Fellow at the London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies and a member of The Steady State, among other affiliations. His views expressed here are personal.
Founded in 2016, The Steady State is a nonprofit 501(c)(4) organization of more than 400 former senior national security professionals. Our membership includes former officials from the CIA, FBI, Department of State, Department of Defense, and Department of Homeland Security. Drawing on deep expertise across national security disciplines, including intelligence, diplomacy, military affairs, and law, we advocate for constitutional democracy, the rule of law, and the preservation of America’s national security institutions.
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