“Elon Musk Proposes Controversial Name Change for the English Channel—What Could It Mean for Britain’s Identity?”

In a world where place names seem to be undergoing a social media makeover, who better to weigh in than the ever-controversial Elon Musk? In 2025, just days after President Donald Trump audaciously rebaptized the Gulf of Mexico, Musk has tossed his own hat into the ring by proposing a new name for the beloved English Channel. That’s right! The tech tycoon wants to rebrand the body of water separating England from France to commemorate none other than George Washington, giving us all a reason to scratch our heads in disbelief. As if he doesn’t have enough on his plate—like figuring out Twitter’s next conspiracy theory—Musk’s quirky idea has left many wondering: why the obsession with renaming geography when there are more pressing issues at hand? Is it a form of respect, or an elaborate bid for attention? Brits are not having it, declaring that the English Channel, named since the early 18th century, is just fine as it is. Curious to see where this goes? LEARN MORE.

It seems renaming places really is all the range in 2025, as Elon Musk has now suggested a new moniker for the English Channel.

Days after President Donald Trump officially rebaptised the Gulf of Mexico with a new title, the tech guru shared his idea for doing the same on our side of the pond.

Musk wants to meddle with the large body of water which separates southern England from northern France by giving it a new name which is associated with one of America‘s Founding Fathers.

Even though he’s got much more pressing matters to be dealing with – such as the fallout from his controversial gesture Trump’s inauguration – the Tesla boss has apparently been preoccupied by thinking up a new name.

Never mind the fact that we’ve been calling it the English Channel since the early 18th century, as Musk reckons his title would roll off the tongue a lot easier.

For extremely patriotic Americans with a soft spot for political figures, that is, rather than the people in the countries which actually surround the Channel.

The water helped the UK become a naval superpower during the Napoleonic Wars and World War 2, so we’re all quite protective over it, as it goes.

This is why Brits have made it clear Musk’s bizarre suggestion to rename it after George Washington isn’t something we’re interested in.

The first president of the US has tons of monuments dedicated to him, while his face is immortalised on Mount Rushmore and on $1 notes – but Musk seems to think he deserves some respect in the UK, too.

Elon Musk proposed that the English Channel should be renamed after George Washington (Chesnot/Getty Images)

In a post shared on his platform X on Sunday (26 January), the billionaire shared an image of the English Channel on a map which instead featured the name ‘The George Washington Channel’.

Alongside the photo, he wrote: “New name for the water that separates England and France.”

Musk didn’t elaborate on his reasoning for this, although social media users weren’t exactly surprised that he wanted to lay claim to the arm of the Atlantic Ocean which is the busiest shipping area in the world due to the Dover Strait.

Still, people didn’t seem to understand why he had even sat and thought about the subject – especially when the US’ current focus is apparently buying Greenland, although the nation has insisted it isn’t for sale.

One user said: “What’s with this obsession now to change the names of geographical landmarks?”

Another wrote: “It’s ridiculous. Why would we spend millions of dollars to change signage and documents? The US doesn’t have the authority to rename international bodies of water.

“We can call them what we want in our official documents, but that’s not an official name change.”

While a third added: “The English Channel is not being renamed after George Washington. Grow up.”

It’s not the first time Musk has stuck his oar in UK affairs either, as he’s been slamming Prime Minister Keir Starmer online since he took office last year.

As well as this, he previously floated the idea of creating a ‘£20 billion tunnel’ underneath the Atlantic Ocean which connects London to New York.

Although he already adorns dollar bills and has countless monuments, Musk reckons the first President deserves a UK honour too (Jakub Porzycki/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

He claims that it could get people from A to B in less than an hour.

According to Dr Damian Tambini, an expert in media and communications regulation at the London School of Economics, Musk’s interference in the UK is down to his ‘blatant’ economic interests.

He said in a blog post: “If we examine the current state of regulation in the EU and the UK, the erratic political meddling of the US entrepreneur, and his ‘heroic’ stand on free speech, seem more rational.

“Musk is on an all-out campaign to undermine EU regulation: by undermining the political balances of the EU, and by questioning the very definition of free speech.

“The uncomfortable fact is that collaboration with fact checkers – which Musk rejected and has now enlisted Meta to campaign against – is what platforms must do under the new EU regime.”