Trump says he asked Google to rename the Atlantic Ocean; company declined
US President Donald Trump says he asked Google chief Sundar Pichai to rename the Atlantic Ocean and was turned down. The company has not publicly commented on the conversation.
US President Donald Trump said at a rally in South Carolina that he approached Sundar Pichai, the head of technology company Google, with a request to rename the Atlantic Ocean, either in his own honour or after America. The British newspaper The Guardian reported the account. According to Trump, the company did not back the idea.
What Trump says
In Trump's telling, Pichai said no. He reportedly explained that oceans differ from other geographical features because they border many countries. The president presented the idea with humour, referring to earlier attempts to change geographical names. He also acknowledged that he will probably drop the idea and that the ocean will keep its current name.
Google has not publicly given an official comment on the conversation, so the information rests on Trump's own account.
Earlier renaming cases
This is not the first time Trump has wanted to change geographical names. In 2025 he signed an order renaming the Gulf of Mexico the Gulf of America. He later also advocated renaming Lake Ontario as Lake America. The president has previously floated the idea of renaming the Strait of Hormuz in his own honour as well.
The mapping service Google Maps shows these changes to users in the US, but names may differ in other countries. In Mexico and Canada, for example, users still see the usual names. The changes have previously drawn criticism from the public and from other countries.
