You might be hearing about the gulf off the coast of the U.S. and Mexico. Here's what to know about the body of water the size of Alaska.

When Google announced it was complying with US President Donald Trump’s executive order to rename the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America, many Mexicans responded with a laugh and a long, exhausted sigh.

The federal government, including the military, is changing the name on maps to "Gulf of America." Even Google suggested it would make the change.

"As directed by the President, the Gulf of Mexico will now officially be known as the Gulf of America," the Interior Department stated in a statement last week. Google responded by noting that the change complies with its longstanding policy of aligning map labeling with updates in official government databases.

Google says it will take its cue from the U.S. government if it has to change the names of the Gulf of Mexico and Denali on its Maps service.

The change will only be visible to U.S. users. Those in Mexico will still see “Gulf of Mexico,” while those in the rest of the world will see both names on the map.

Google said it would follow the Trump administration in renaming the Gulf of Mexico once the new name is updated in government sources.

Google Maps will change the name of "Gulf of Mexico" to "Gulf of America" once it is officially updated in the U.S. Geographic Names System, Google said in an X post on Monday.

One of the first things President Trump did after taking office was announce plans to change the name of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America.

Professor Ryan Weichelt is the department chair for the geography and anthropology department at UW-Eau Claire. He says that this change is not a universal change, and that it’s up to different administrations or institutions to decide what they want to call the gulf. However, it is being formally changed on some maps.

The names of geographic locations are arbitrary — chosen and abandoned by humans, changing as power and culture shift.