MOORE HAVEN — An elementary school teacher here has had his petition to correct the spelling of Muse approved by the U.S. Board of Geographic Names.

Anthony Narehood, who teaches at Moore Haven Elementary School, emailed last week to say, “Muse is officially M-U-S-E,” not “Muce” or “Meuce” as it has appeared on some maps and even on Google Maps, which he was aiming to rectify.

“The U.S. Board of Geographic Names mailed me a letter, writing to inform me that, as of its April 11 meeting, they approved my proposal to correct the misspelling of the name. The change has been entered into the Geographic Names Information System, the nation’s official geographic names repository. It’s all official, now,” Mr. Narehood said.

Lake Okeechobee News/Dale Conyers
A sign marks the turn for Muse off of State Road 78; this view is looking west along the highway toward Alva.

His petition, filed last year, first had to pass inspection by the Florida State Names Authority, which had no objection. Then it was researched by the U.S. Geological Survey, which contacted the Glades County Board of Commissioners.

Commissioner Donna Storter Long wrote a letter in support of Mr. Narehood, citing a recent discussion when she and her fellow Glades commissioners had approved the effort by Mr. Narehood to standardize the spelling, and enclosed the minutes of that meeting.

Mr. Narehood’s elementary-grade students were impressed that he was able to move the machinery of government to fix a little misspelling.

But he said he’s still working on Google, though. It won’t be automatic that the spelling is corrected in the giant global search engine’s Maps application, where a cursory check showed it’s still misspelled. “I’m asking Jennifer Runyon, a member of the research staff for the U.S. Board on Geographic Names,” he said, how Google will be made aware that it needs to be changed.