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Donald Trump said Sundar Pichai urged him not to rename the Atlantic Ocean. The warning highlighted international sensitivities surrounding names shared across countries.
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Washington,Oct 22, 2026 20:16 IST
US President Donald Trump said he had considered renaming the Atlantic Ocean but dropped the idea after Google chief executive Sundar Pichai warned that it could upset several countries, news agency Press Trust of India reported.
Speaking at a rally in South Carolina on Wednesday, Trump suggested that renaming Lake Ontario as the Lake of America had prompted him to consider new names for the Atlantic or Pacific Ocean.
“Recently, I changed the name of a lake you know the lake. But I did it very lightly. And the damn thing got changed, actually. That's power, right? When you sort of do it half-heartedly, and it gets changed, it's changed. It's called the Lake of America,” he said.
Trump said he discussed the idea of renaming the Atlantic Ocean with Pichai, the Indian-American CEO of Google.
“I spoke to a brilliant guy, Sundar. He heads all of Google. He's a brilliant guy. Sergei and Sundar. Totally brilliant guys,” Trump said, apparently referring to Google co-founder Sergey Brin as well.
Referring to his decision to rename the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America, Trump said: “And, you know, they're still rattled from the Gulf. And I said, ‘Sundar, I'm thinking of the Atlantic Ocean. Can you handle it?’”
According to Trump's account reported by PTI, Pichai told him that oceans were different because they covered many countries and asked him not to pursue the proposal. “So, I'll probably pass it,” Trump said.
During the address, Trump also considered changing the names of rivers such as the Hudson and the Mississippi to America.
“So, we have a lake, and we have a Gulf. Now we need a river and we need an ocean. So, I was thinking of the Hudson River, and I thought of the Mississippi,” he said, adding that he would not proceed with renaming the rivers.
On Monday, Trump called for New Mexico to be renamed in a post on Truth Social, saying the state was part of the United States and not Mexico. “We are not Mexico, we are the United States of America!” he wrote.
The call came a little over a month after Trump shared maps on social media showing New Mexico as “New America”.
The name New Mexico dates to the 1500s, when Spanish settlers named the region Nuevo Mexico. The name predates both the United States and modern-day Mexico as independent countries. New Mexico was an incorporated US territory before becoming the country's 47th state in 1912.
Trump has, therefore, raised the possibility of renaming an ocean, rivers and the state of New Mexico after earlier name changes involving a lake and the Gulf of Mexico, but said he would not pursue the proposals concerning the Atlantic Ocean or the rivers.
With PTI Inputs
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