Google Maps updates Lake Ontario to ‘Lake America' in U.S. following federal name change

Domestic users will see the new designation while Canadian users retain the original label, per company international mapping policies.

Google announced Saturday it has begun updating Google Maps to reflect the federal government's official renaming of Lake Ontario to Lake America.

Under the update, users inside the United States will see the body of water labeled as Lake America, while users in Canada will continue to see Lake Ontario. Users accessing the map outside both countries will see both names displayed.

The company stated the changes align with its standard policy of updating map designations based on official government sources. In the U.S., that source is the Geographic Names Information System.

Google noted that the federal repository formally changed the name for Lake Ontario to Lake America in the U.S. Because the company updates its maps to reflect name changes in official government sources, domestic users will see the new name, Canadian users will see the original name, and international users will see both.

The company added that the updates follow its long-standing policy for bodies of water with names that vary from country to country.

The GNIS, developed by the U.S. Geological Survey’s National Geospatial Program, supports the U.S. Board on Geographic Names as the official repository of domestic geographic names data and the official vehicle for geographic names used across all federal departments.

This story originally appeared on NBCBayArea.com.