Public opinion · Government
Reuters/Ipsos poll: 63% of Americans oppose renaming Lake Ontario
A Reuters/Ipsos survey of 1,023 U.S. adults published Sep. 1 found 63% opposed the rename and 14% supported it — a rare case of a naming fight with hard numbers attached.
Reuters and Ipsos surveyed 1,023 U.S. adults and published the results on Sep. 1, 2026: 63% said they opposed renaming Lake Ontario to Lake America, and 14% said they supported it. The remainder did not take a side.
This is a national probability-based survey, which makes it a very different animal from the one-tap poll on this site. Ours tells you what people who read a website about lake names think. That one is designed to estimate what the country thinks, with a stated margin of error.
We flag both numbers because readers keep asking the same question — is anyone actually asking for this? — and now there is a sourced answer to point at rather than a vibe.