Q&A: ‘Gulf of Mexico’ vs ‘Gulf of America’

Each week here at the Australian Writers’ Centre, we dissect and discuss, contort and retort, ask and gasp at the English language and all its rules, regulations and ridiculousness. It’s a celebration of language, masquerading as a passive-aggressive whinge about words and weirdness. This week, gulf wars…

Q: Hi AWC, can we discuss the Gulf of Mexico?

A: Do you mean the Gulf of America – the name change that Donald Trump’s government has made it their priority to push through in 2025?

Q: Well yeah I guess, although has it actually changed?

A: Who knows what it is when someone is reading this in the future. The “Gulf of Tesla” perhaps? Or “Pepsi Presents the Gulf of Mexico” maybe.

Q: Yeah, good point. My question is really about how it got its original name – after all, the United States does border a bigger chunk of it, right?

A: Today, yes. But back when it was first named, the political map looked a little different.

Q: I’d rather not get into all the politics.

A: No, we mean “political” as in borders versus natural features. During the 1500s, the Europeans were busy stamping their claim all across the North American continent. In fact, the name “America” came from Italian explorer Amerigo Vespucci. While most of his contemporaries – including Christopher Columbus – were excited to have found a shortcut to Asia, Vespucci was one of the first to realise it was actually a new continent – naming it “The New World” in 1501.

Q: Wow, nice work, Vespy.

A: He’d die before he got to see any maps with “America” on them though. And those early maps named the body of water just below the USA many things – including “the Gulf of Mexico” (after the “Mexica” people, more commonly labelled ‘the Aztecs’), “the Sea of the North”, “Gulf of Cortés” (after Spanish explorer Hernán Cortés), “Gulf of Florida”, “Gulf of New Spain”, “Yucatán Sea” and “Great Antillean Sea” among others.

Q: That’s quite the list. But no “Gulf of America”?

A: Nope. Both North and South continents were officially recognised as “America” in 1538 by mapmaker Gerardus Mercator though.

Q: Mercator? Don’t we still use his map?

A: Well, we use his style of equally spread out latitude lines – known as the “Mercator projection”. Because maps are flat and the planet curves in at each end like a ball, it gives us the misleading stretching effect – making Greenland look huge.

Q: Don’t you mean the American Republic of Greenland?

A: Please don’t start – this article is on shaky topical ground enough as it is.

Q: So Greenland’s not actually as big as it looks?

A: That’s right. It’s still pretty big – but more like India-sized than Africa-sized.

Q: Didn’t we discuss how Greenland was named another time?

A: We sure did, among all things green. That chat can be found here.

Q: Okay, so back to the Gulf of Mexico. It sounds like they tried out a lot of names for this body of water, yeah?

A: Absolutely!

Q: I noticed that some were “gulf” and some were “sea”. What’s the difference?

A: Very good question. The definition is a little fluid.

Q: Well, duh. It’s water.

A: Hilarious. We mean that depending on who named something, it might have ended up as a “gulf” or a “sea”. For what it’s worth, the Macquarie Dictionary defines a “gulf” as “a portion of an ocean or sea partly enclosed by land”.

Q: And a sea?

A: They define a sea as “a division of salt water, of considerable extent, more or less definitely marked off by land boundaries” – such as the Mediterranean Sea. But also as “a large lake or landlocked body of water” – for example, the Caspian Sea.

Q: So you’re saying that the Persian Gulf could have just as easily been called the Persian Sea?

A: That’s right. Naming things is political, like we said.

Q: Ugh.

A: Anyway, by the mid 1600s, “Gulf of Mexico” had emerged as the frontrunner – still largely referred to by the Spanish as “Mexico Cove” or “Mexico Sound”.

Q: Even more interchangeable names!

A: Yep, the whole area was a bit of a mess.

Q: So why did “Mexico” end up as the dominant name?

A: It likely comes down to the coastal and political dominance of that time. Because while today, the USA can claim to have more than half of the edge of this water, back prior to 1836, it was Mexico that had the lion’s share.

Q: Lion?

A: Okay, the chihuahua’s share. This “New Spain” was dominant for centuries in this area and Mexico stretched all the way around to Louisiana.

Q: What happened in 1836?

A: That’s when Texas broke free of Mexico and nine years later joined the Union.

Q: Handy for pay negotiations.

A: No. The Union. The United States. Texas was the 28th state to join and a pretty big draft pick.

Q: Totes. So what’s this current deal with the “Gulf of America”.

A: It seems that as of February 2025 some mapping agencies are going along with it – yet the truth is that there are no formal rules for naming international waters. So as of today, the  International Hydrographic Organization continues to recognise the name of 400+ years – the Gulf of Mexico. In the US however, many departments have changed it or have both names listed side by side.

Q: Do you think if there wasn’t oil in it, there would be quite this same fuss?

A: Probably not.

Q: What a strange world we live in.

A: More than 70% water!

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