Executive Order 14172: Restoring Names That Honor American Greatness

What does Executive Order 14172 do?

Directed the Interior Department to restore the name Mount McKinley for the peak previously federally named Denali and to rename the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America for federal use.

Later primary evidence reviewed September 24, 2026: A federal maritime naming notice applied the Gulf renaming directed by this order. Official source. The cited steps do not establish every downstream effect.

Reading the operative provisions of Executive Order 14172

The order distinguishes federal naming from how states, tribes, local governments, private mapmakers, or residents refer to a place. It directs Interior to restore Mount McKinley in the federal Geographic Names Information System and to change the federal name used for the Gulf of Mexico. The GNIS is the federal government’s official geographic-names database; an update there guides federal agencies, maps, records, and publications. It does not itself redraw a boundary or compel another government or a private publisher to use the same term.

Interior’s 30-day task was to update federal records, after which agencies were to use the revised names. Later notices can apply the federal naming direction to a particular context, such as maritime charts or agency datasets. Such a notice is evidence of how one federal office implemented the order, not proof that every international, state, or commercial naming system changed at the same time.

The order also tells Interior to solicit public input on additional names honoring historical figures, but that longer-term process is separate from the immediate GNIS changes. A proposed name is not final until the responsible federal process records it. When a map or government document uses one name, check the issuing agency and date to see whether it reflects the federal database, a state choice, or another authority. Read Executive Order 14172 in the Federal Register.

The federal naming change also affects how information is indexed. Agencies that use GNIS data may update maps, charts, publications, and databases after Interior changes the entry. That is an administrative consistency direction; it does not settle historical, cultural, or linguistic disputes about the names. The order separately asks for public input on additional honorees, which requires a later review rather than automatic renaming. The timeline and database record show which change was made and when federal agencies were expected to use it.