The OSM Community discusses the Trump Administration's renaming of "The Gulf of Mexico" to "The Gulf of America"
The OSM Community discusses the Trump Administration's renaming of "The Gulf of Mexico" to "The Gulf of America"
President Donald Trump just said during his inauguration that he wants to rename the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America. Aside from the political aspects, how does that even work? How does OSM choose a source for that? I’m curious! Also, somebody executed what I thought while I wrote this post:
References
- "Gulf of America - Gulf of Mexico". stillhart. General talk. OpenStreetMap Community Forum. Published: 2025-01-20T17:37:25.493Z. Accessed: 2025-01-21T08:47Z. https://community.openstreetmap.org/t/gulf-of-america-gulf-of-mexico/124571.
- "Restoring Names That Honor American Greatness". The White House. Published: 2025-01-20. Accessed: 2025-01-22T06:59Z. https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/01/restoring-names-that-honor-american-greatness/.
- §"Sec. 4"
I think we should just ignore anything that comes out of this admin to the greatest extent practical. Don't give them legitimacy.
Legtimacy? The guy won the popular vote. Like it or not, legitimacy there is.
Yes...that's why we call them "Freedom Fries".... riiiight...
The idiot president of one country can call it whatever he wants. But it doesn't make it internationally recognized.
Do you like the taste of boots better on a rainy day or on a dry, sunny day?
Just call it the Gulf of Mexico and be done with it.
For ducks sake, just because one country wants it to be different doesn't change how it's internationally recognized.
There's nothing to discuss. It's the Gulf of Mexico, and suggestions to the contrary are to be appropriately dismissed as childish.
Aa a side note, make sure that, no matter what, you find a way to follow "Gulf of" with "Mexico". It should flow by rote in the hearer's mind, simply by virtue of the fact that they hear it the correct way when you talk about it.
This is a trivially easy battle to fight. Only use the correct name, and it will be the one that sticks. Using the incorrect name, even to make correct statements about how it's dumb and childish and not going to be its name going forward, reinforces the lie.
Mexico is the Gulf-of-havin'est thing you ever did see.
OSM exists to record and map facts, not to dictate them. If some people call it that way, than it should be recorded in the database, it's not about personal preferences and politics, we shouldn't decide if the name is right or not. If you read the linked forum thread you can see that it is purely technical, about how we should record it in the database and when (now vs when and if it will become official)
It's a bit annoying here that a lot of people misunderstands this, and comments recommendations with near zero osm mapping experience, this is about how to map a thing on OpenStreetMap, not about politics.
I could imagine Trump deciding that a random bird needed to be named after himself, and inaturalist having a forum discussion about localization etc. It's probably the same kind of debate here
How does OSM deal with Arabian Gulf / Persian Gulf? I’ve only ever seen it referred to by the latter name by western sources but only the former name in Arabic over here.
I’m well aware that the name “declaration” of Arabian Gulf was a political move in the 20th century, but I’ve never seen the name Persian Gulf in Arabic. Never.
Just curious.
Looking at a map, it would really be best named the Gulf of the Americas.
But otherwise is this reminiscent of Erdoğan's decree changing the name of Turkey to Turkiye.
A map should show the established name, i.e., the most widely understood designation, the one that enjoys the most consensus, including among specialists, historians, and so on. In a sane world, dictators do not get to wake up one morning and decide to change our maps.
It's still the Gulf of Mexico.
Different situation, I'd say. You get a say how your own countries, cities, etc get named. No one is forced to accept it, but it's a matter of international respect to do so.
You don't get to rename a geographic feature. Much less one that's outside your borders.
Why? There are commisions for that. E.g. the United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names (international), the United States Board on Geographic Names (USA) or the Permanent Committee on Geographical Names (UK). Just follow the lead of one of these. There is no need to further complicate stuff.
Wiki says we should use ISO 639 language codes, but en-us is a BCP 47 code. There is a section about this on the wiki, that we should switch for that standard because of situations like this: https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Multilingual_names#Issues
It is a necessary discussion for the OSM project, and it is quite reasonable the way it's been developing.
I suggest renaming it the Gulf of How Does This Help Grocery Prices Again?
Seems idiotic to me to discuss what some nutter suggested no matter their current job title. Everything in the world has been named already geography wise.
I think the discussion there is quite reasonable given the circumstances, and
official_name:en-USonce the GNIS updates is the correct way to go until people actually start calling it the new name.what a stupid timeline this is
Wiki says we should use ISO 639 language codes, but en-us is a BCP 47 code. There is a section about this on the wiki, that we should switch for that standard because of situations like this: https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Multilingual_names#Issues
The problem they are addressing right now is that "Gulf of America" is not an equivalent name, as "Gulf of America" can and will only apply to the waters next to USA states, so it is a regional name, official or regular.
Hmm, right. This makes it somewhat more complicated. If this new name starts being used by many people and organizations, I suppose it would make sense to create a new
place=seaboundary=maritime, but until then it'd be kind of stupid to pollute the map with a new entity just because it's in the official records.
Only time I deadname.
It isn't deadnaming.
I assume you're joking, which is cool, but just to have the truth visible next to it 👍
Looks like the thread is gone now, what was the discussion like?
To put it simple, they say each country can decide what name to use for where, and that's what OSM uses as a reference.
What it is called however is not by defined by what the president says alone though, it has to go through the entire government bureaucracy thing.
Looks like the thread is gone now […]
Hrm, I can still see it.
I just checked, and it's only the link in the post body
It has a period at the end, and so my client opened an error page. I can see it now :)
Call it "The Gulf of Trump" or as a one redditor put it: "the Gulf of Cheaper Eggs".
Also maybe re-name New Mexico "New America".
What if it was The Gulf of the Atlantic