The Trump administration's Interior Department claims to have "officially" changed the name of the Gulf of Mexico to the "Gulf of America," as well as the Alaskan peak Denali to Mount McKinley.

US President Donald Trump authorized the name changes as part of a flurry of executive orders after taking office on Monday.

The Interior Department announced on Friday that the "Gulf of Mexico will now officially be known as the Gulf of America, and North America's highest peak will once again bear the name Mount McKinley."

Alaska's highest peak had formerly been dubbed Mount McKinley, in honor of former president William McKinley, under whose leadership the US became one of the world's colonial powers.

Trump claimed in his inauguration speech that McKinley "made our country very rich through tariffs and talent."

While Trump may instruct the US government to legally acknowledge Mount Denali's new name, he has no authority over the Gulf of Mexico's name.

As one of the world's largest and most important bodies of water, with a massive economic impact on the region, the Gulf of Mexico has had several names. 

The term "Golfo de Mexico" originally appeared on maps in the mid-16th century, when Spain ruled what is now known as Cuba to the south, Mexico to the west, and the US states that surround it to the north.

According to analysts, such a name change is unlikely to be accepted worldwide, and any unilateral name change by the US might cause confusion and undermine international accords.

Meanwhile, the United States Coast Guard (USCG) began using the phrase "Gulf of America" to refer to the Gulf of Mexico on Tuesday, one day after Trump issued an executive order, initiating the process of changing its official name.

The USCG said on Tuesday that it will deploy more forces to several sites, including "the maritime border between Texas and Mexico in the Gulf of America."

Trump's executive order gave the US Department of the Interior 30 days to take "all appropriate action" to implement the name change.

Trump renaming of Gulf of Mexico only applies to US: Mexican president

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum on Tuesday addressed US President Donald Trump’s recent executive order to rename the Gulf of Mexico as the "Gulf of America," emphasizing that the change would only apply to the US continental shelf.

"It is important to read what the order says. It says that it will be called the Gulf of America on their continental shelf. In other words, what corresponds to the US continental shelf, they call the Gulf of America. For us, it is still the Gulf of Mexico, as it is for the rest of the world," Sheinbaum explained during a press conference.

Sheinbaum also responded with humor to the move earlier this month, suggesting that Mexico might rename North America as "América Mexicana" if the US were to proceed with renaming the Gulf. "That sounds nice, no?" she added, referencing a historical document from 1814.

The United Nations weighed in on the matter, with spokesperson Farhan Haq asserting that naming conventions should not be altered unilaterally.

"I don't have any particular reaction to this. I believe that a lot of the various naming conventions are well established and are not really the purview of any one individual state," Haq said on Tuesday.