Restoring Names That Honor American Greatness

What it is

This is a presidential Executive Order (EO 14172), signed January 20, 2025 and published in the Federal Register on January 31, 2025. It directs federal officials to rename certain geographic features and to reshape the government body that approves such names. Its stated purpose is to name national landmarks after people the order describes as heroic or patriotic Americans.

What it changes

Within 7 days, agency heads who appoint members to the U.S. Board on Geographic Names must review and consider replacing their appointees, and the Secretary of the Interior may add appointments; the reconstituted Board is told to apply this naming policy and may revise its own procedures. Within 30 days, the Interior Secretary must reinstate the name “Mount McKinley” for North America’s highest peak (which had been officially named Denali since 2015) and update the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS), while the surrounding national park keeps the name “Denali National Park and Preserve.” Also within 30 days, the Secretary must rename the Gulf of Mexico as the “Gulf of America” across the defined continental-shelf area up to the boundaries with Mexico and Cuba, update GNIS, and remove references to “Gulf of Mexico.” The Board must issue guidance so federal maps, contracts, and documents use the new names consistently, including using Board-approved names in the interim where Congress must act to make a renaming permanent. The order also invites the Interior Secretary to gather public input on additional people to honor ahead of the nation’s 250th anniversary.

Who is affected

The main actors are the Secretary of the Interior, the U.S. Board on Geographic Names and its appointing agency heads, and federal agencies that produce maps, contracts, and official documents, which must adopt the new names. The order also directs the Interior Secretary to work with Alaska Native entities and state and local organizations on naming landmarks. It creates no legal rights that any person or party can enforce against the government, and it is subject to available funding and existing law.