Gulf of America - Gulf of Mexico

official_name:en-US will definitely make sense if it does gain the force of law. It was only official_name:en I was objecting to.

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So how about tagging it proposed:official_name:en-US = Gulf of America in the meantime?

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IMHO it is already alt_name:en, or alt_name:en-US, because the fact we are discussing about it (and the president of the US introduced the idea), means it is effectively an alternative name now. It does not have to be official for alt_name

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It’s funny how rich and powerful people think they can change the names of things by declaration. That’s not really how language works. Who remembers freedom fries as anything but the butt of a joke? :smile: See also: X Twitter and Meta Facebook

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We should avoid to participate to these Great Telereality Shows. Should we simply recognize that there is only one America continent. If we want to talk about an American name, all the countries that are part of the America continent should vote for this !

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Don’t get your point
 The majority of native English speaking countries have to agree on what should be in name:en, majority of US need to agree on name:en-us and US government need to define, what should be official_name:en-us. I’m not aware of any name:americas, but that would be, what you are talking about.

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By using other negotiation tactics to let this one slide. “We will rename it to Gulf of America, but you won’t get tariffed”

On the Gulf of Mexico/Gulf of America: Might the nat_name:en-US tag be appropriate?

Also, the “Gulf of America” name has now been used by Florida’s state governor in an executive order declaring a state of emergency relating to the weather: NOTE TO PRESS: EXECUTIVE ORDER NUMBER 25-13 (Emergency Management-Gulf Winter Weather System) | Executive Office of the Governor

Trump’s EO is here: Restoring Names That Honor American Greatness – The White House

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For the record, the White House actually released a Press Statement (section 4) saying that the Gulf of Mexico is now called the Gulf of America. A name:en_us=Gulf of America would be the most accurate compromise for now.

Edit: Gah! Jules got to it first!

Please note that the Executive Order doesn’t actually rename the Gulf of Mexico. It directs the agency to go through the procedure to rename it within 30 days. That hasn’t happened yet.

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(b) As such, 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 “Gulf of America” 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.

OSM should reflect this change as official_name:en-US upon the boards approval of the secretary of the interiors request. This executive order is only directing the secretary to make this action. Until such time alt_name:en-US makes the most sense as it is in use but not official yet.

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Is official_name really appropriate? It seems to be meant primarily for names that are legally official, but rarely used day-to-day even in formal contexts. For example, Mexico is officially called the “Estados Unidos Mexicanos” (“United Mexican States”), but even Mexican government documents are going to use “MĂ©xico” (“Mexico”) much more often. That’s why I suggested nat_name instead for the Gulf.

Note that the executive order defines “Gulf of America” as

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

The Gulf of Mexico is much bigger than this. So it seems rather than a renaming, this executive order is creating a new name for a sub area of the Gulf of Mexico.

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official_name because we won’t know if it’s commonly used outside official documents until time proves that out. It could be the accepted new name, it could be the next freedom fries. FWIW, Wikipedia’s talk pages on this also came to the conclusion to wait and currently have a redirect from “Gulf of America”

I presume we will all be waiting for the official change before anything is updates. Thus far we only have a EO for a secretary to make the request.

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A keen distinction, as noted by a recent Wikipedia edit:

The northernmost portion of the Gulf within U.S. borders has been designated as the Gulf of America by the federal government of the United States during the Second presidency of Donald Trump in January 2025.[8]

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English Wikipedia is not specific to the United States, and neither is the Gulf. Of course, they would not change their title unless the new name gains prominence internationally (outside the USA). But a name tag in the OSM that is labeled as US-specific would have less stringent requirements.

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Yes, that’s why we are distinguishing between:

  • alt_name:en-US for a name used in the US, but not official, such as the subsection of the Gulf of Mexico, the Gulf of America.
  • official_name:en-US for when it/if it passes the board.
  • name:en-US if the term becomes common, switching to alt_name:en-US=Gulf of Mexico
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What about using trump_name=something?
:dotted_line_face:

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and it goes on 
 OSM note w/ “Gulf of America”

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Can we retag Trump’s golf courses as Golf of Mexico?

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