Why Did They Change the Name of Mt. McKinley to Mt. Denali? Here's the Answer

What's in a name? In the United States, landmarks, schools, cities, and other important locations can hold a lot of importance based on their name alone. Like many other countries, in the United States, we tend to name our important places after noteworthy figures from history. Some who are remarkable in a good way, and some who are remarkable in a not-so-good way.

Changing those names is something that happens on occasion, usually because a historical figure is deemed too problematic to honor. But there's one particular landmark that has had its name changed and then seems poised to have it changed back again. And that's Mt. Denali, formerly known as Mt. McKinley. But why was McKinley's name changed in the first place? Let's take a look at the mountain's name switcheroo, along with the changes of some other important places in American history.

First of all, who was Mt. McKinley named after in the first place? That would be the 25th President of the United States, President William McKinley. The United States bought Alaska, and thus the mountain that would become McKinley, in 1867 for $7.2 million. Prospectors quickly began to move into the territory. According to History.com, prospector William Dickey dubbed the mountain "Mount McKinley" in an article he published in the New York Sun.

The name became official in 1917.

In 2015, nearly one hundred years later, President Barack Obama renamed it Mt. Denali. It was a name supported by native Alaskans, in the language of the Athabascan people. It means "The Great One."

The goal of changing the name to Denali was to honor the Native American history of the region.

Then in 2025, President Donald Trump promised to change the name from Denali back to Mt. McKinley. Republicans promoted the return to the mountain's first official name by suggesting that President McKinley deserved the honor of the mountain's name.

This isn't the first time an important location has seen a major name switcheroo. For example, Cincinnati, Ohio. The city's original name was Losantiville, and the reason for the name was part of what made it so unpopular.

According to Todd Wenning on Medium, the city's original name was an interesting combination of “L” for the nearby Licking River; “os,” which is the Greek word for mouth; “anti,” which is Latin for opposite, and “ville,” which is French for town.

In 1790, Cincinnati was renamed. The new name was bestowed in honor of the Society of the Cincinnati, which was an order of Continental Army officers founded by Henry Knox in 1783.

And then again, you have Atlanta, the largest city in the state of Georgia.

Atlanta was once known as Marthasville, and it was named after the daughter of the then-governor. But the name didn't last long. The city, which was founded as the terminus of the Western & Atlantic railroad line, was quickly renamed Atlanta. Atlanta, as in the feminine version of "Atlantic," which is the railroad whose rail lines ended in Atlanta at the time of its founding.

The name shuffle goes on and on. Throughout history, sites, cities, and other public locations have been subject to this name shuffle as historical figures rise and fall, and leaders look to incorporate other figures into the grand map of the United States.