In southernmost Louisiana, where the land on the map looks like grains of rice and okra in a bowl of gumbo, the body of water alongside it has always played a potent role. It has carried in ancestors, allowed for the industries that became the region’s backbone, delivered devastating storms and eroded the coast, lately at an aggressive clip.
Living near the water has required understanding its rhythms and their consequences. But for generations, one thing most people on the Gulf Coast have not thought much about was what to call it.
“It’s always been the Gulf of Mexico,” said Kenneth Armand, 62, standing outside his home in tiny Cut Off, La., just yards away from Bayou Lafourche, on the state’s southern coast. “Ever since I was born.”
When President Trump issued an executive order last month to rename it the Gulf of America, communities along the coast found themselves thinking about the basin in a way many never had before.
For many Gulf Coast residents, the change was surprising, if not puzzling — the order was unexpected and not exactly responding to a groundswell. Still, many have accepted it, seeing the move as a reflection of how central the body of water is to the country’s identity and economy.
“God’s greatest country!” said Mr. Armand’s wife, Jeanie, 76. “Everybody’s calling it the Gulf of America now.”
Flora-Bama, a beloved beach bar in Pensacola, Fla., has had to keep restocking $27 T-shirts emblazoned with “Gulf of America,” a worker in the gift shop said last week. The popularity of the shirts has led to similarly branded hats and foam sleeves to hold beer cans.
“It was a no-brainer,” said Jenifer Parnell, the company’s marketing director. “We’re patriotic, we support America, and we can sell some Flora-Bama stuff.”
Not shockingly, enthusiasm for the name change corresponds with support for Mr. Trump, as interviews with two dozen residents of the Gulf Coast suggested. But some in the region see the change as widening a gulf of a different kind: In a deeply divided country, where people not only disagree but also increasingly have differing versions of reality, it is one more thing that was once undisputed but is now up for debate.
“When this change happened, I felt we are losing our grip on what is real and that the current administration is making their own reality,” said Stephanie Davis, 60, who lives near the gulf in Fort Myers, Fla. “You can’t just rename this big body of water that has had the same name for 400 years — and yet, you can.”
Republican officials in the Gulf States — Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana and Texas — have rushed to embrace the name. Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida, in anticipation of the order, started using the name before it became official. He referred to the Gulf of America in an executive order related to a winter storm on Jan. 20 — hours before Mr. Trump signed his executive order.
Mr. Trump’s order has also provoked a far more sweeping and technical undertaking, as state and local governments have to decide whether to rewrite laws and official documents. Lawmakers in Florida have put forward legislation that would require public schools to use Gulf of America and rename a highway Gulf of America Trail. A bill in Alabama would require public entities in the state to use the name on newly created maps, documents, educational materials, websites and official communications. (That bill also calls for making “reasonable efforts” to update older materials.)
But the order has also created a predicament for institutions and organizations that want to avoid the partisan fray. Continuing with the status quo could be perceived as much of a political choice as adopting the new name.
Some news organizations on the coast have followed the guidance of The Associated Press to still call it the Gulf of Mexico — a decision that led to the Trump administration to exclude A.P. reporters from certain events and a lawsuit. (Some publications with an international audience, like The New York Times, continue to use Gulf of Mexico.) Gannett — which publishes The Corpus Christi Caller-Times, Pensacola News Journal and The News-Press in Fort Myers, among other coastal newspapers — has opted to include references to both names in articles.
The Galveston County Daily News in Texas has decided to stick with Gulf of Mexico because it is “just stubborn about changing longstanding names,” said Michael A. Smith, the newspaper’s editor.
“People in the real estate business once tried to rename an old Galveston neighborhood to something fancier than Fish Village; it’s still Fish Village in the pages of The Daily News,” Mr. Smith added. He said the paper might reconsider if there is resistance from readers. “We’ve had none so far.”
The National Maritime Museum of the Gulf of Mexico in Mobile, Ala., was designated by Congress as the only national museum dedicated to the gulf. The museum, which is operated by the city government, will have to follow the lead of city and state officials. “Changing the name will cost a good bit of time and money,” said Karen Poth, the museum’s executive director.
But scrubbing references to the Gulf of Mexico throughout the museum would be virtually impossible. It covers eight floors and has more than 80 exhibits.
References to the Gulf of Mexico (or a Spanish translation of the name) go as far back as the 1500s, though it has also been known at points as the Gulf of New Spain and the Florida Sea.
The gulf coast extends roughly 1,680 miles from the mouth of the Rio Grande to Key West, a racially, economically and biologically diverse stretch that encompasses the white sands and crystalline waters of beach towns and the cola-shaded murk of working shorelines.
Mr. Trump’s order described the gulf as “an integral asset to our once-burgeoning nation” and “an indelible part of America,” noting its importance to the oil and gas, seafood and maritime industries.
But Nelly Camuñas, a 33-year-old cosmetologist in Wesley Chapel, Fla., saw it as little more than a power play by Mr. Trump. “It’s just another ‘Look at us, we’re the biggest and the baddest,’” she said. “I think we can recognize it as anything, but globally, that’s not how that works.”
For many others in the region, the order prompted little more than a shrug.
“It’s still the same sand, the same sunshine, and it’s not a bad place to be,” said Tammy Ozinga, 57, who has lived in Pensacola her entire life. “You’re still going to bring your friends and family, you’re still going to enjoy the waves, and if there’s anyone mad at someone changing the name, it’s because they’re not a big fan of change to begin with.”
Many noted that they had always simply called it “the gulf,” and they will continue to do so. “I can’t even say that I’ve ever called it the Gulf of Mexico before in my life, anyway,” said Jacky Danaher, 44, a waitress at a Waffle House in Pensacola.
Ms. Danaher had heard just about every opinion on the subject from her customers. The change struck her as unnecessary. “I’m more of a ‘don’t fix it’ kind of girl,” she said.
“I do wonder if my kids will be taught to say the Gulf of America,” she added, “because it’s like changing the name of the Atlantic or Pacific Ocean.”
Others argued that the gulf needed the attention of Washington, but its name was not the issue. The coast has been profoundly affected by a changing climate, with blistering summers and ravaging storms in recent years, and the threat is only expected to intensify.
On Fort Myers Beach, Hurricane Ian devastated the barrier island in 2022, damaging or destroying nearly every structure on its seven-mile stretch. The community suffered further damage from Hurricanes Helene and Milton in 2024. There are new fears about an outbreak of red tide dampening the winter tourism season.
“A name change seems like a lot of busywork while much more important things need to get done,” said Jason Pim, 44, of Cape Coral, Fla.
Mr. Armand, who works for a helicopter charter company, questioned Mr. Trump’s authority to make such a sweeping change. Still, he and his wife thought it was a worthwhile effort. So much of the gulf bordered the United States, and it was so vital to shaping livelihoods, recipes and personal histories — the name just made sense, they said.
Most of the body of water, in fact, lies outside maritime regions controlled by the United States. But the gulf, from the Armands’ vantage point on the Louisiana coast, was more American than Mexican.
“It’s like going to the moon and to Mars — people laughed at it,” Mr. Armand said. “It takes one crazy idea to make people think about it.”
“As long as they don’t change the name of Louisiana,” Ms. Armand said.
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