{"id":1836064,"date":"2025-01-21T23:15:46","date_gmt":"2025-01-22T04:15:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/?p=1836064"},"modified":"2025-10-25T10:31:36","modified_gmt":"2025-10-25T14:31:36","slug":"naming-the-gulf","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2025\/01\/naming-the-gulf\/","title":{"rendered":"Naming the Gulf"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

It\u2019s been a grand total of one day since Donald Trump signed an executive order directing the Secretary of the Interior to rename the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America<\/a>. Or, to be more precise<\/a>,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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within 30 days of the date of this order, the Secretary of the Interior shall, consistent with 43 U.S.C. 364 through 364f, take all appropriate actions to rename as the \u201cGulf of America\u201d the U.S. Continental Shelf area bounded on the northeast, north, and northwest by the States of Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida and extending to the seaward boundary with Mexico and Cuba in the area formerly named as the Gulf of Mexico. The Secretary shall subsequently update the GNIS to reflect the renaming of the Gulf and remove all references to the Gulf of Mexico from the GNIS, consistent with applicable law. The Board shall provide guidance to ensure all federal references to the Gulf of America, including on agency maps, contracts, and other documents and communications shall reflect its renaming.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Despite the timetable of Trump\u2019s order, and the fact that his pick for interior secretary hasn\u2019t as of this writing even been confirmed yet (in the meantime, presumably the order falls uncomfortably in the lap of the acting secretary, a career official), Trump\u2019s followers are already after people to adopt the name change right now<\/em>, dammit. A Republican congressman is after Apple about their maps<\/a>, and the Gulf of Mexico Wikipedia article\u2019s talk page<\/a> has exploded as users come in demanding the name change. And even after the GNIS changes the name<\/a>\u2014and to be clear, what we\u2019re talking about is the name of the portion of the Gulf of Mexico found in U.S. territorial waters, because a country can\u2019t unilaterally change the name of an international body of water\u2014you can\u2019t force<\/em> anyone to use that name: not other countries<\/a>, not private companies<\/a>, and certainly<\/em> not individuals.

But oh, you can<\/em> take note of who refuses to do so. \u201cGulf of America\u201d is basically a loyalty test\u2014a MAGA shibboleth.

Whatever your take on Trump\u2019s rhetoric about the Gulf of Mexico being an integral part of the U.S., the Gulf of Mexico\u2019s name predates that status<\/a>, and not by not a little bit. The United States did not reach the Gulf of Mexico until the Louisiana Purchase of 1803, which gave it New Orleans and the mouth of the Mississippi, and the Spanish Cession of 1819, which gave it Florida and the Gulf Coast east of Texas. How much before that did the Gulf of Mexico get its name? Let\u2019s find some answers by looking at old maps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

\"An<\/a>
\u201cLes costes aux environs de la rivi\u00e8re de Misisipi: d\u00e9couvertes par Mr. de la Salle en 1683 et reconnues par Mr. le Chevallier d’Iberville en 1698 et 1699,\u201d from Nicolas de Fer, L\u2019Atlas curieux<\/em>, 1701. Library of Congress Geography and Map Division.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

French maps of the late 1600s and early 1700s\u2014a century before the Louisiana Purchase, when the French were active in the area\u2014routinely referred to it as the Golfe de Mexique<\/em>. See, for example, maps by Claude Bernou<\/a>, Nicolas de Fer (above, here<\/a> and here<\/a>), Jaillot and Mortier<\/a>, or Jean Lattre<\/a> (featured image).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a>
Louis Jolliet and Jacques Marquette, Carte de la nouvelle d\u00e9couverte que les RR. P\u00e8res J\u00e9suites ont fait en l’ann\u00e9e 1672 et continu\u00e9e par le R. P\u00e8re Jacques Marquette, de la mesme compagnie, accompagn\u00e9 de quelques Fran\u00e7ois en l’ann\u00e9e 1673, qu’on pourra nommer la Manitounie<\/em>, 1673. Library of Congress.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

So did Marquette\u2019s map<\/a> in 1673 (above: see the far left edge of the map). At roughly the same time, John Ogilby\u2019s atlas, America<\/em>, included a map<\/a> that labelled the Gulf the Golfo de Nueva Espa\u00f1a<\/em>\u2014the Gulf of New Spain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But we can go farther back still.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n
Left: detail from Mercator, Atlas sive Cosmographicae<\/a><\/em> (ca. 1595). Right: detail from Le Moyne de Morgues, Floridae Americae provinciae<\/a><\/em> (1591). Library of Congress Geography and Map Division.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
<\/div>\n\n\n\n

In response to a question I posted on Mastodon yesterday<\/a>, Keith Jenkins pointed me to four maps dating from the 1580s and 90s: Andr\u00e9 Thevet\u2019s Nouveau monde descouvert et illustre de nostre temps<\/a><\/em> (1581) calls it Golfe Mexique<\/em>. Giovanni Battista Massa calls it Golfo Mexicano<\/em> in the 1590s Americae et proximar regionum orae descriptio<\/a><\/em>, as does Mercator<\/a> (detail above left). Jacques Le Moyne de Morgues\u2019s 1591 map of Florida and Cuba<\/a> (detail above right) has the label Mexicani sinus pars<\/em>\u2014part of the Mexican Gulf.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a>
Detail<\/a> from Mercator, Nova et Aucta Orbis Terrae Descriptio ad Usum Navigantium Emendate<\/em> (1569). Wikimedia Commons.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

And as Henry Patton points out<\/a>, Golfo Mexicano<\/em> appears on Mercator\u2019s 1569 world map<\/a> as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is more than two hundred years before the American Revolution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So the Gulf of Mexico has had its name for at least 456 years. Europeans were calling it the Gulf of Mexico when the only English presence in North America was the Roanoke colony, and when \u201cAmerica\u201d was a fairly new name, coined not that long before by Martin Waldseem\u00fcller, for the entire New World.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Regimes change place names all the time. It\u2019s not remotely the worst thing they can do. But the changes seldom outlast the regime doing the renaming: ask the residents of Leningrad or Karl-Marx-Stadt\u2014or Zaire, for that matter. A stroke of a pen can just as easily undo a name change. And a name that has been on the map for 456 years has better odds than most of making it through.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[Updated 22 Jan 2025 at 8:52 AM EST to add reference to Mercator\u2019s 1569 world atlas, and update the number of years the Gulf of Mexico has had its name.<\/em>]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Update 28 Jan 2025<\/em>: Google Maps to Use \u2018Gulf of America\u2019\u2013Others Not So Much<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Update<\/em>: More Reactions to ‘Gulf of America’<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

More updates:<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n