How do place names get made and then changed? There’s a process. But it involves people as well as bureaucracy, so it’s not simple or quick, as President Trump is about to find out.

As part of a torrent of decisions he issued this week hours after taking office, President Donald Trump declared that the name of America’s tallest mountain be changed from Denali to Mount McKinley, and that the Gulf of Mexico be renamed “The Gulf of America.

In 2015, the name of the peak was changed during the Obama administration to reflect the traditions of Alaska Natives and preference of many Alaskans.