Washington, Deutsche Presse-Agentur (dpa)

US President-elect Donald Trump wants the Gulf of Mexico to be renamed the ‘Gulf of America’.

“We’re going to be changing the name of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America, which has a beautiful ring,” he told a news conference at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida on Tuesday (January 7). “What a beautiful name. And it’s appropriate. It’s appropriate.”

The name of the gulf on the south coast of the US and east coast of Mexico has been in use since the 16th century.

A renaming would require diplomatic negotiations with Mexico and possibly Cuba given the tip of the island nation can be said to be in the gulf.

Trump previously suggested renaming North America’s highest mountain – Denali – back to its previous moniker of Mount McKinley.

The mountain was officially named Denali under Trump’s first predecessor, Democrat Barack Obama, at the request of the state of Alaska after years of dispute over cultural sensitivities.

Trump will be sworn in as president for a second time on January 20.