Gulf of Mexico
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305639190.V・T・E Gulf of Mexico, North America  Golfo de México |
| latitude: 25, longitude: -90 |
| Browse map of Gulf of Mexico 25°00′00.00″ N, 90°00′00.00″ W |
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Gulf of Mexico is a sea in North America at latitude 25°00′00.00″ North, longitude 90°00′00.00″ West.
Littoral countries
Geometry
The Gulf is represented by 305639190 305639190 placed in the general vicinity of the centroid. This place=sea node was created in 2008 based on data from the GEOnet Names Server. [1] It was converted to a large, crude area in 2020 [2], then converted back to a node in 2023 after an extensive discussion on the forum. A more precise area representation would have been unmanageable, and major renderers such as OpenMapTiles lack support for labeling sea areas. [3][4]
Name
The name of the Gulf became politically contentious in January 2025, especially on maps. As OSM is not a consumer-facing product per se, the OpenStreetMap Foundation's longstanding policy regarding geopolitical disputes is to prioritize the on the ground rule by default but also record information about notable alternative claims, so that data consumers such as renderers and geocoders can choose what to present to end users.
As of February 2025, the Gulf's node has tags indicating its many names, most notably:
| Key | Meaning | Value | Justification | Introduced |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| name | Common name in the local language | Golfo de México | Most of the Gulf's littoral countries speak Spanish. | 2020 |
| name:es | Common name in Spanish globally | Golfo de México | Traditional name. | 2010 |
| name:en | Common name in English globally | Gulf of Mexico | This name remains overwhelmingly popular both in the U.S. and abroad and so far continues to be used by most news and print media. | 2008 |
| official_name:en-US | English name preferred by U.S. government agencies | Gulf of America | Official U.S. federal government position per GNIS and GNS, as ordered in Executive Order 14172. The order is only binding on the U.S. federal government, but the name is very unpopular according to opinion polling and so far rarely used in news or print media. | 2025 |
In practice, renderers are unlikely to label the Gulf based on official_name:en-US=*. As seen at the top of this page, OpenStreetMap Carto does not label place=sea nodes at all. Tracestrack Topo uses name=*, while OpenStreetMap Americana defaults to name:en=* for English speakers, name:es=* for Spanish speakers, etc., based on browser preferences or a user configuration option. On the other hand, most geocoders are likely to find the Gulf if the user searches by any of these names, including the value of official_name:en-US=*, but they will return name:en=*, name:es=*, etc. based on the requested language.
This tagging is the product of extensive community discussion. Do not change these tags without consulting OSM's global and U.S. communities. Undiscussed changes will be reverted on sight by the community or the Data Working Group.
OpenHistoricalMap
OpenHistoricalMap has a chronology of the various names applied to the Gulf over the centuries.