A Republican lawmaker wants Lake Erie to be renamed “Lake Pennsylvania,” arguing that the state’s economy and identity are increasingly connected to its only Great Lake. State Representative David Maloney, who represents Pennsylvania’s 130th Legislative District in Berks County, is preparing a resolution urging President Donald Trump, Congress and Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum to take the steps needed to change the lake’s name, according to a September 8 press release. Maloney said Pennsylvanians travel to the lake for boating, fishing and family visits, spending money along the state’s shoreline.
He also cited Pennsylvania Sea Grant research and said Pennsylvania stocked almost 500,000 yearling steelhead in 2025, approximately 40 percent of those stocked across the lake. New York already has two Great Lakes. Canada has four others,” Maloney said.
The move comes two weeks after Trump declared Lake Ontario to be renamed "Lake America" amid the United States' trade conflict with Canada. Maloney's office told Newsweek when contacted for comment: "The press release explains how Pennsylvanians’ care of their great lake draws other lake state residents to it for recreation and world class fishing. Be proud and own it." Newsweek also reached out to the White House for comment via email.
Lake Erie’s name comes from the Indigenous people living along its southern shore when Europeans reached the area in the early 1600s, according to the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy. Erie is a shortened form of the Iroquoian word “Erielhonan,” meaning “long tail” and referring to the eastern cougar. The National Museum of the Great Lakes says Europeans discovered Lake Erie last among the Great Lakes and that control of it was strategically important because it provided access above Niagara Falls.
Lake Erie lies along the U.S.-Canada border. Ontario is on its northern shore, while Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania and New York border it on the American side. The lake is the smallest Great Lake by volume and the shallowest.
Maloney is a Republican representing Pennsylvania House District 130, covering part of Berks County. He was first elected in 2010 and is the Republican chair of the House Game and Fisheries Committee. His official Pennsylvania House biography lists previous work as a building contractor, process engineer, school board director and athletics official.
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