Washington: US President Donald Trump has claimed that Google CEO Sundar Pichai turned down his proposal to rename the Atlantic Ocean "Trump Ocean", citing the difficulty of changing the name of a vast body of water that spans multiple countries.
Trump recounted the alleged exchange during a rally in Georgia on October 17, saying he had approached Google about renaming either the Atlantic or Pacific Ocean after himself. According to Trump, the company declined the request, explaining that oceans were different from other geographical features because they extended across numerous national boundaries.
"Trump Ocean"
Trump said he had sent Google an image showing the proposed name "Trump Ocean"". He recalled the company responding that it could not make the change because oceans covered many countries. Trump subsequently suggested that he was joking, although he maintained that the idea was not entirely without merit.
"I called Google Maps to change the name of the Atlantic Ocean to Trump Ocean," Trump said while addresssing the cheering crowd before the midterm elections.
"Sundar said No, no, no. This time I'm not doing it. Oceans are different, sir. They cover a lot of countries. Please don't ask us to do that," Trump claimed Pichai as saying. "So we'll probably pass. Let's keep it the Atlantic Ocean," Pichai said, according to the US President.
As of writing this article, neither Google nor Pichai had publicly confirmed the conversation.
Why Google accepted earlier name changes
The reported refusal comes after Google Maps incorporated geographical name changes promoted by the Trump administration. In February last year, Google began displaying the name "Gulf of America" instead of "Gulf of Mexico" for users in the United States, following an update to the US government's Geographic Names Information System (GNIS). The company also adopted the name "Mount McKinley" for Alaska's Denali in accordance with the administration's directive.
ALSO READ: Google Maps Renames Gulf Of Mexico To Gulf Of America; Will Apple Maps Change Next?
Google explained that its Maps service follows official government naming sources. It also applies different labels depending on users' locations when geographical names vary between countries.
As a result, US users see "Gulf of America", users in Mexico continue to see "Gulf of Mexico", and users elsewhere see both names. The policy reflects Google's approach to handling differences in official geographical terminology rather than imposing one label universally.
Why renaming an ocean is more complicated
Unlike a name change within a country's domestic geographical database, renaming an ocean would involve a feature extending across international boundaries. A unilateral US decision would not automatically establish a universally recognised name for the Atlantic Ocean.
The Atlantic is one of the world's major oceans, bordered by multiple countries across North America, South America, Europe and Africa. Any attempt to replace its established international name would therefore raise diplomatic and cartographic questions beyond Google's mapping policies.
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