WASHINGTON, Aug. 28 -- Along the New York shoreline of one of the world's largest freshwater bodies, the fishing boats and ferry terminals now exist, on paper at least, beside a lake with a different name. On Wednesday, the Trump administration signed an executive order renaming the United States' portion of Lake Ontario - which has borne that name in every international treaty, navigation chart, and school atlas for more than two centuries - to Lake America.

The order, published by the White House and first reported by Euronews, applies only to territory under American jurisdiction. The Canadian shore, which comprises roughly sixty percent of the lake's surface, including the city of Toronto and the surrounding communities of nearly fou...