Lake America — cascade retina

Was Lake Ontario really renamed to Lake America?

Yes — at the U.S. federal level. Executive Order 14420, signed August 27, 2026, directs the Interior Department to rename Lake Ontario as “Lake America” in federal usage. The official federal gazetteer (GNIS) changed the lake's name the same day: its record now reads “Lake America” with a Board on Geographic Names decision dated 2026-08-27. The order binds federal agencies only — it does not rename the lake for Canada, New York State, or international bodies.

Is the new name official everywhere?

No. 58 of 108 official records this site tracks use the new name as of day 47. The rest — including 36 federal regulations, 9 U.S. Code sections, and 0 NOAA nautical chart titles — still say Lake Ontario. Statute text can only be changed by Congress, and treaty documents can't be changed by either country alone.

Does Canada recognize the name Lake America?

No, and the executive order doesn't claim to bind Canada. The lake is shared: Canada's official naming authority and the province of Ontario continue to use Lake Ontario (Ontario's own Great Lakes pages still use the original name, as measured by this site's daily checks). Binational bodies like the International Joint Commission also still use Lake Ontario. The Boundary Waters Treaty and the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement are unaffected.

Will maps show Lake America now?

Federal maps will: GNIS drives naming across federal agencies' maps and documents, and it flipped on day one. Commercial map providers each decide independently — with the Gulf of Mexico → Gulf of America rename in 2025, major U.S. map apps followed the GNIS change within weeks for U.S. users while showing the old name elsewhere. NOAA's 50 nautical chart titles for this lake are tracked here and 50 have been re-titled so far.

Is Lake Ontario still called Lake Ontario anywhere in federal records?

Yes — including inside GNIS itself. The order told Interior to remove all references to Lake Ontario from GNIS, but the record actually kept “Lake Ontario” as a variant name alongside historic names like Skanadario and Lac des Iroquois. Beyond the gazetteer, 49 of the 108 tracked records still use the old name, and 2 Federal Register documents so far use the new one.

What laws and regulations have to change?

This site tracks every place the name appears in binding text: 36 sections of the Code of Federal Regulations (Coast Guard safety zones, the Lake Ontario National Marine Sanctuary rules, EPA water-quality standards), 9 sections of the U.S. Code (which only Congress can amend), 50 NOAA chart titles, plus New York state law and binational agreements that the order cannot touch. The grid below is the live status of each one.

Where is the lake, and how big is it?

The lake sits between New York State (south and east shore) and the Canadian province of Ontario (north and west shore), draining the other Great Lakes into the St. Lawrence River. It is the smallest of the five Great Lakes by surface area at about 7,340 square miles, roughly 193 miles long and 53 miles wide, with a maximum depth of about 802 feet.

Answers are regenerated nightly from the same measured snapshots that drive the grid — sources: EO 14420, GNIS, eCFR, govinfo, Federal Register, NOAA ENC catalog.