Pennsylvania Congressman Proposes Renaming Lake Erie to 'Lake Pennsylvania' in House Resolution

Republican Representative Maloney of Pennsylvania intends to bring a resolution before the U.S. House urging President Donald Trump, Congress and the Secretary of the Interior to change the name of Lake Erie to "Lake Pennsylvania." He contends that the lake functions as the Commonwealth’s sole Great Lake, drawing millions of visitors each summer and that roughly 74 % of surveyed anglers are residents of Pennsylvania, who travel an average of 103 miles to fish there.

In 2025 the state stocked nearly 500,000 yearling steelhead—about 40 % of the total stocked in the lake—and provided all of the brown trout released that year, underscoring its stewardship role. Maloney points out that Pennsylvania’s shoreline is the second-smallest among the four bordering states, second only to Ohio, and argues that the lake’s identity is increasingly tied to the state’s economy and tourism. He also references the lake’s historic name derived from the French "Erielhonan" people and notes that prior federal name changes, such as Trump’s 2025 renaming of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America and the reversal of Denali to Mount McKinley, affect only U.S. naming authorities. Any U.S. approval would not compel Canada, which shares the Great Lakes, to adopt the new name.