Dear Trump: Names Matter

Names and I have always been on precarious terms. 

This is partially because I’ve always known my own name to be the macabre franken-child of my parents’ other two options — Holly and Bailey — but it’s primarily because I view questioning language’s preciseness and varied modes of meaning as crucial to my work as a writer and editor. 

I don’t view names with any kind of reverence, but I do view them as essential — they’re the scaffolding through which we construct our view of history. The who and what must almost always be answered before the where, when and why. 

To completely disregard the name of something is equivalent to ignoring how important the act of naming is — cutting history’s legs out from under it, so to speak. 

From Adam’s naming of animals in Genesis to Plato’s “Cratylus” to Shakespeare’s iconic musings about a rose, names have seemingly always been conduits for philosophical endeavors, historical understandings and contemporary discernments. 

In short, names matter — which is why President Donald Trump is trying to undermine their importance. 

On the president’s first day in office, among the slew of executive orders he signed were two “symbolic moves” to rename major landmarks, The Associated Press reported. 

The first re-labeled the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America. The other reverted the name of North America’s highest mountain from Denali — the name recognized by the Obama administration in 2015 to reflect the traditions of Alaska Natives — back to Mount McKinley, named for Trump’s claimed icon and “tariff king” President William McKinley. 

The name changes didn’t stop there, as just last week Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth reverted the name of a military base in North Carolina back to Fort Bragg, replacing the name it was given in 2023 — Fort Liberty — as part of the Biden administration’s efforts to remove names honoring confederate soldiers, The AP reported. 

Trump’s administration isn’t the first to use the import of names to its advantage. The act of naming or renaming is a way presidents can cultivate their particular visions for the nation, Dr. Allison Prasch, political rhetoric professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said in an interview with the BBC. 

Prasch also said Trump’s decisions indicate a nationalist, imperialist vision for the U.S. — a sinister appendage to his pervasive rhetoric of Manifest Destiny. 

“I actually think that this is much more than renaming a body of water on a map,” Prasch said of the Gulf of  Mexico renaming. “It is a fundamentally rhetorical decision about how we think about the story of the nation.”

Trump stated the executive order wasn’t strictly due to the gulf’s “pivotal role” in America’s economy, but was also an effort to concretize his slogan of restoring America’s greatness. 

“The Department of the Interior remains committed to upholding all aspects of President Trump’s executive order, ensuring that the names we use reflect the values, sacrifices, and accomplishments that define our Nation,” the department wrote of the name changes. 

The AP — which has been barred from the White House due to its unwillingness to comply with the president’s name changes — called these initiatives part of Trump’s “America First” policies, underscoring them as decidedly rhetorical moves rather than political ones. 

This dangerous nationalist rhetoric denotes what seems to be an attempt to deny historicity in favor of American exceptionalism — influencing the story of the nation, according to Prasch.

The Gulf of Mexico has sported a number of names throughout its history. When it was reached by the Spanish in 1513, they thought they’d found a route to Asia and called it the Chinese Sea, according to the BBC. 

Other early explorers called it the Gulf of Cortés or the Gulf of New Spain — but in the mid-1500s the Gulf of Mexico first appeared on Spanish maps “honouring” the Mexica people who founded the Aztec empire, according to the BBC. 

The Gulf of Mexico — unlike the Gulf of America — is a name derived from centuries of precedent, underscoring the body of water’s historical significance and carrying it into the present. 

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum has threatened to take legal action against Google for recognizing the name change, claiming the Trump administration’s renaming violates Mexican sovereignty as the country owns 49% of the gulf and the United Nations recognizes the name Gulf of Mexico, The AP reported. 

Similarly, changing Denali back to Mt. McKinley has been met with similar resistance, despite its domestic locale. Alaska’s senators — both Republicans — introduced legislation Feb. 13 to require the name Denali be used in all official references to the mountain, including in U.S. laws, maps, regulations and other records, according to The Hill. 

Trump’s name changes have upset news outlets, international governments and U.S. citizens alike — all in the name of vapid and fruitless endeavors meant to boast American greatness in lieu of implementing policy that actually makes America great. 

A so-called great country would be recognizing and honoring international historicity. It would be using its economic power and rhetorical preeminence to promote progress rather than boast a contrived past. 

It would treat names — and the reasoning behind them — with respect, acknowledging history as a foundation for the present, rather than bygones ripe for propagandistic cherry-picking or monikers that only exist to be overturned at the president’s will.