The Trump administration may want to rename another body of water, according to the Associated Press. This time, they may want the Persian Gulf to be renamed the Arabian Gulf, or the Gulf of Arabia.
This is not really a personal wishlist of President Trump, although the media will have fun pretending it is. Arab countries in the region have wanted this for some time but Iran has held strong to the name since Persian means refers to Iranians, although not all Iranians are Persian.
Iran is so attached to the Persian Gulf that it threatened to sue Google for leaving the name off of the map in 2012. Google Maps currently calls it the Persian Gulf (Arabian Gulf).
The problem is that Iran does not consider itself an Arab nation while all other surrounding nations do so neither names work for everyone.
The U.S. has referred to the area as the Arabian Gulf officially for some time but the U.S. does not have the final say on what the rest of the world calls bodies of water. That privilege lies with The International Hydrographic Organization.
