Restoring Names That Honor American Greatness

This executive order titled “Restoring Names That Honor American Greatness” directs federal agencies to pursue a broad renaming of certain geographic features and to reshape how places are named to emphasize what the President describes as “the extraordinary heritage of our Nation.” Key changes include restoring the historical name Mount McKinley for the mountain in Alaska (while the surrounding park area would keep its current Denali designation), and renaming the Gulf of Mexico area as the Gulf of America (including the adjacent U.S. Continental Shelf) with instructions to update official maps and records. The order also creates a process through the Board on Geographic Names to review and potentially replace names to align with this policy, and it invites public input on additional names to honor patriotic figures. The document makes clear that these actions are intended to be implemented within specific timeframes and are subject to existing law and appropriations; it also states that the order does not create enforceable legal rights. Overall, the order signals a policy shift toward actively reshaping federal naming conventions to reflect a particular patriotic narrative, with practical steps for agency action, name approvals, and information-gathering to guide future renaming initiatives.