News organizations across the United States have overwhelmingly declined to adopt President Donald Trump’s preferred renaming of the Gulf of Mexico, maintaining long-established terminology even as federal agencies and major technology platforms updated their systems to reflect the new “Gulf of America” designation.
The naming dispute began on Inauguration Day, when the administration issued an executive order directing federal departments, agencies and mapping authorities to recognize the body of water as the Gulf of America. The change was implemented quickly across government channels, with Google, Apple and Microsoft incorporating the updated name into their map products.
But the shift did not take hold in American journalism.
A review of nearly 30,000 articles across multiple news databases — including Nexis, Newspapers.com and MediaCloud — shows that “Gulf of Mexico” continues to dominate by wide margins in everyday usage. In February, during the first full month after the executive order, the traditional name was used 1.48 times as often as “Gulf of America” in U.S. newspaper stories. By late summer, that gap widened significantly. In September, stories that used only one of the two names referenced the Gulf of Mexico more than ten times as often.
Analysts attribute part of the consistency to routine coverage patterns. Hurricane season, which drives a surge in reporting on weather, safety and emergency management, heavily favors longstanding terminology. A search of hurricane-related stories shows the traditional name used at roughly a three-to-one ratio.
Industry practice has also contributed. The Associated Press, whose stylebook guides many newsrooms, announced early in the year that it would retain “Gulf of Mexico,” leading the White House to bar AP reporters from the Oval Office until a federal court intervened. Other outlets independently affirmed the same policy, citing established geographic usage.
Regional reporting has followed a similar trend. Newspapers and broadcasters in Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida — the states bordering the Gulf — have continued using “Gulf of Mexico” or opting for broader shorthand such as “the Gulf” or “Gulf Coast.”
The adoption pattern varies in only a few sectors. “Gulf of America” has gained the most traction in federal publications, trade outlets serving the oil and gas industry and politically conservative national media. But even within those categories, usage has remained limited when stories do not directly reference the name-change dispute itself.
The data suggests that while the federal designation has influenced government materials and mapping services, the term has not taken hold in the broader news ecosystem. For most outlets, the Gulf of Mexico remains the prevailing standard, reflecting more than half a millennium of linguistic continuity and reinforcing longstanding newsroom caution around rapid geographic rebranding.
Texas Reporter 