New york city known as the big apple

The Big Apple: How NYC Got Its Name

TripSavvy / Brakethrough Media

New York, New York, the most populous city in the United States, has been given many nicknames, including The City That Never Sleeps, Empire City, and Gotham—but perhaps the most famous one of all is the Big Apple.

The nickname «The Big Apple» originated in the 1920s in reference to the prizes (or «big apples») rewarded at the many racing courses in and around New York City. However, it wasn’t officially adopted as the city’s nickname until 1971 as the result of a successful ad campaign intended to attract tourists.

Throughout its history, the term «big apple» has always come down to simply mean the best and biggest of places to be, and New York City has long lived up to its nickname. Once you visit this seven-mile-long city, you’ll truly understand why it’s called the Capital of the World and the Big Apple.

The Big Reward: From Racing to Jazz

The first mention of New York City as «The Big Apple» was in the 1909 book «The Wayfarer in New York.» In the introduction, Edward Martin writes about the dynamic between NYC and the Midwest, using the apple as an extended metaphor:

«New York is merely one of the fruits of that great tree whose roots go down in the Mississippi Valley, and whose branches spread from one ocean to the other, but the tree has no great degree of affection for its fruit. It inclines to think that the big apple gets a disproportionate share of the national sap. It is disturbed by the enormous drawing power of a metropolis which constantly attracts to itself wealth and its possessors from all the lesser centers of the land. Every city, every State pays an annual tribute of men and of business to New York, and no State or city likes particularly to do it.»

The term only started gaining traction when sports writer John J. Fitz Gerald began writing about the city’s horse races for the New York Morning Telegraph. In his column, he wrote that these were «the big apples» of competitive racing in the United States.

Fitz Gerald got the term from African American stable hands in New Orleans; jockeys and trainers who aspired to race on New York City tracks referred to the money prizes as the «Big Apple. He once explained the term in an article for the Morning Telegraph:

«The Big Apple. The dream of every lad that ever threw a leg over a thoroughbred and the goal of all horsemen. There’s only one Big Apple. That’s New York.»

Although the audience for Fitz Gerald’s articles was markedly smaller than most, the concept of «big apple» representing the best of the best—or most-sought-after of rewards or accomplishments—began to popularize across the country.

In the late 1920s and early 1930s, the nickname started to become well known outside of the northeast, as New York City’s jazz musicians began referring to New York City as the «Big Apple» in their songs. An old saying in show business was «There are many apples on the tree, but only one Big Apple.» New York City was (and is) the premier place for jazz musicians to perform, which made it more common to refer to New York City as the Big Apple.

A Bad Reputation for the Big Apple

In the late 1960s and early 1970s, New York City was quickly earning a national reputation as a dark and dangerous city. To increase tourism to New York City in 1971, the city launched an ad campaign with Charles Gillett, president of the New York Convention and Visitors Bureau, at the helm. A fan of jazz, he wanted to restore the city to its former glory by adopting the Big Apple as an officially recognized reference to New York City.

The campaign featured red apples in an effort to lure visitors to New York City. The red apples, intended to serve as a bright and cheery image of the city, would stand in contrast to the common belief that New York City was riddled with crime and poverty. T-shirts, pins, and stickers promoting the «Big Apple» quickly became popular, thanks in part to the help of celebrities like New York Knicks legend Dave DeBusschere—and the city welcomed tourists to «take a bite out of the Big Apple.»

Since the conclusion of the campaign—and subsequent «rebranding» of the city—New York City has officially been nicknamed The Big Apple. In recognition of Fitz Gerald, the corner of 54th and Broadway (where Fitz Gerald lived for 30 years) was renamed «Big Apple Corner» in 1997.

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Почему Нью-Йорк называют «Большим яблоком»?

Такой термин, псевдоним «города мира» появился в 20-ые гг. прошлого века. Популяризации этого прозвища Нью-Йорка поспособствовал спортивный журналист Джон Джей Фитц Джеральд (John J. Fitz Gerald) , который отвечал за обзор скачек в газете Morning Telegraph .

В первый раз такое выражение появилось в номере газеты от 3 мая 1921 года:

J. P. Smith, with Tippity Witchet and others of the L. T. Bauer string, is scheduled to start for «the big apple» to-morrow after a most prosperous Spring campaign at Bowie and Havre de Grace.

(Джон Смит с чистокровной верховой лошадью Tippity Witchet вместе с другими из команды Лайонэла Бауэра завтра отправится в «Большое яблоко» , после удачных стартов в Bowie и Havre de Grace )

В последующие годы Фитц Джеральд достаточно часто употреблял это выражение, а 18 февраля 1924 года в специальной колонке «Around the Big Apple» (Вокруг Большого яблока) журналист объяснил причины его использования. Впервые он услышал его в Новом Орлеане (Луизиана), когда так называли ипподромы Нью-Йорк два афроамериканца. Жокеи имели в виду, что лошади любят яблоки, а так ка главные скачки проходили в Нью-Йорке, то это было «Большим яблоком». Выражение Фитц Джеральд объяснил так:

The Big Apple. The dream of every lad that ever threw a leg over a thoroughbred and the goal of all horsemen. There’s only one Big Apple. That’s New York.

Большое Яблоко. Мечта каждого парня, который когда-либо перебрасывал ногу над чистокровной лошадью и цель всех всадников. Есть только одно большое яблоко. Это Нью-Йорк

Ещё по одной, менее популярной, версии выражение зародилось в среде джазовых музыкантов. Якобы у них была пословица: » На древе успеха много яблок, но если тебе удалось завоевать Нью-Йорк, тебе досталось большое яблоко.»

В конце 1920-ых гг. выражение вышло за пределы скачек, а в с следующее десятилетие появились песня ( (Bob Emmerich — “Big Apple”, 1937 ) и танец, популярный изначально у афроамериканцев, с одноимённым названием. В 40-50-ые гг. прошлого века его продолжил использовать известный американский радиоведущий Уолтер Уинчелл, но в 60-ые популярность спала — город стали называть Fun City ( город веселья).

В начале 1970-ых гг. New York Convention and Visitors Bureau (маркетинговая городская организация, бюро, отвечающая за развитие туризма) стала вновь продвигать прозвище Big Apple. Жителям и туристам в Нью-Йорке раздавались наклейки с логотипом «Большого яблока», было заказано большое количество сувенирной продукции. Были проданы за символическую плату тысячу таких стикеров (около 80 тысяч штук за 2 и 10 центов в зависимости от размеров и материала). Рекламная компания прошла успешно, за городом надолго закрепилось прозвище «Большое яблоко».

В 1997 году мэр Нью-Йорка Рудольф Джулиани подписал указ, в результате которого угол Западной 54-ой улицы и Бродвея, где проживал Джон Фитц Джеральд, был назван Big Apple Corner (Угол Большого яблока).

В 2016 году по поводу своего избрания на пост Президента США Дональд Трамп организовал вечеринку под названием The Big Apple Ball (Большой яблочный шар), в рамках которой были представлены тематические декорации достопримечательностей города.

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Why is New York Called Big Apple

If you are aware of American culture you must wonder why is New York called big apple? US is generally referred to as America by the people. It is a developed and very advanced country with great opportunities for all those who dream and are ready to work hard to realize their dreams. Many people refer to as America as Big Apple though it is the city of New York that is actually nicknamed the Big Apple. Not many people are aware of the reason behind this nickname though they continue to use this name for this big and very important city of US. This article takes a look at the origins of the nickname Big Apple for the city of New York.

Why is New York Called Big Apple – Reasons

Various reasons put forward for this nickname

New York is a metropolitan that has got not one but several nicknames. These include The City that Never Sleeps, Gotham, The Great American Melting Pot, and of course The Big Apple. However, it is The Big Apple that has stuck and used most commonly by the people around the country. There are some people who say that the name came from some rich families that were forced to sell apples on the streets of the city after their wealth collapsed during the Great Depression. There is even a story that links the name Big Apple with a brothel owned by a lady called Eve in the 19th century. The girls of this particular brothel were referred to as Big Apples by the people of the city.

Sports columnist FitzGerald used the phrase in his column

However, more realistic account of the name Big Apple comes from a phrase used by sports journalist John J FitzGerald in his newspaper column called Around the Big Apple. He used to start his column with a header titled ‘The Big Apple’. His column was dealing with horse racing. This was a time when it was a dream of every jockey to earn big prize money by taking part in big races. Big Apple was a phrase that alluded to a large purse of money given to winners in races held in New York in those times. Soon the phrase caught the fancy of the common people and New York came to be referred as Big Apple by not just the people of the city but even the outsiders.

Big Apple has become a symbol of New York

The phrase Big Apple was made popular by the jazz musicians of those times as they used it to describe the jazz scene in the city of New York. The name lost some of its appeal in the next two decades. However, it once again became popular in the 1970’s when New York Convention and Visitors Bureau made a red apple as its logo to attract visitors to the city. Since then, Big Apple has become associated with the city of New York and it has even become an unofficial name for New York just as Sin City has become a nickname for Las Vegas.

The phrase Big Apple, when used to refer to New York, reflects the alluring nature of the city. It symbolizes New York as a fast moving and exciting city with lots of opportunities for who dream to make it big someday in their lives.

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Why is New York City called the Big Apple?

This commonly asked question got me wondering, why do we call New York City the Big Apple? While I’ve seen several apple trees in New York City, I don’t particularly recall them as being in notable quantity — there are certainly more pigeons than apples in New York City, but we don’t call New York City the «Big Pigeon.» As with anything New York, there are many opinions and contradictions.

In the early 1920s, «apple» was used in reference to the many racing courses in and around New York City. Apple referred to the prizes being awarded for the races — as these were important races, the rewards were substantial.

In the late 1920s and early 1930s, New York City’s jazz musicians began referring to New York City as the «Big Apple.» An old saying in show business was «There are many apples on the tree, but only one Big Apple.» New York City being the premier place to perform was referred to as the Big Apple.

A 1971 campaign to increase tourism to New York City adopted the Big Apple as an officially recognized reference to New York City. The campaign featured red apples in an effort to lure visitors to New York City. It was hoped that the red apples would serve as a bright and cheery image of New York City, in contrast to the common belief that New York City was dark and dangerous. Since then, New York City has officially been The Big Apple.

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New york city known as the big apple

The earliest documented reference to New York being referred to as “The Big Apple” comes from a 1909 book by Edward Martin, called The Wayfarer. In it, he uses the moniker in a metaphorical sense, rather than a proper name for the city:

Kansas is apt to see in New York a greedy city… It inclines to think that the big apple gets a disproportionate share of the national sap…

The next known documented instance of New York being called “The Big Apple” comes from sportswriter John J. Fitz Gerald who began popularizing the name starting on May 3, 1921, where he stated in a column:

J. P. Smith, with Tippity Witchet and others of the L. T. Bauer string, is scheduled to start for ‘the big apple’ to-morrow after a most prosperous Spring campaign at Bowie and Havre de Grace.

In this case, he was referencing the early 1920s practice of calling certain race courses in the New York City region this particular fruity name; the New York City races tended to payout significant prizes to the winner compared to races in many other regions, hence “big apple.”

According to linguist Dr. Gerald Cohen, this wasn’t out of the ordinary, even outside of horse racing. As he states,

Apples were important throughout history, but the big red delicious apples developed in Iowa in the 1870s came to be regarded as extra special. That led to ‘the big apple’ being applied to things and people who were extra special, or perhaps only thought they were…

As to applying this to New York City, it’s thought that Fitz Gerald didn’t come up with this on his own but rather heard it from people from New Orleans in 1920 when he traveled down to that city to supposedly sell one of his horses, with the common tale being that it came from a couple of stable hands.

Fitz Gerald explicitly mentions this three years later in his 1924 column “Around the Big Apple,” though it’s possible he just made the story up:

The Big Apple. The dream of every lad that ever threw a leg over a thoroughbred and the goal of all horsemen. There’s only one Big Apple. That’s New York. Two dusky stable hands were leading a pair of thoroughbred around the ‘cooling rings’ of adjoining stables at the Fair Grounds in New Orleans and engaging in desultory conversation. ‘Where y’all goin’ from here?’ queried one. ‘From here we’re headin’ for The Big Apple,’ proudly replied the other. ‘Well, you’d better fatten up them skinners or all you’ll get from the apple will be the core,’ was the quick rejoinder.

This nickname for New York City gradually caught on and began being used in a non-sporting sense, including a popular song/dance coming out in the 1930s called “The Big Apple,” as well as numerous references in other songs, particularly in jazz music.

However, this nickname for the city died off by the 1960s and few outside of the city would have understood the reference had you used it then. That all changed in the 1970s when Charles Gillett and the New York Convention and Visitors Bureau decided to revive the nickname in a tourism campaign. In this campaign, they began aggressively advertising New York City as a tourist hotspot and referred to it as “The Big Apple,” using bright, clean looking red apples in their advertisements to attempt to contrast the popular notion of the day that New York City was a dirty place where you were as likely to be mugged as not if you visited there.

If you liked this article, you might also enjoy our new popular podcast, The BrainFood Show (iTunes, Spotify, Google Play Music, Feed), as well as:

• If you’ve been in New York City since 1997, you might notice the corner of 54th and Broadway is called “Big Apple Corner.” This is in homage to Fitz Gerald who lived near there for nearly three decades, from 1934 to 1963 when he died.

Expand for References

• Besides the aforementioned work by Dr. Gerald Cohen, much of the legwork for discovering Fitz Gerald’s involvement in getting New York City called “The Big Apple” was done by etymologist Barry Popik. You can read more about his seminal work in this subject here.

12 comments

>>According to linguist Dr. Gerald Cohen,<>heard it from people from New Orleans in 1920 when he traveled down to that city to supposedly sell one of his horse Fitz Gerald explicitly mentions this three years later in his 1923 column “Around the Big Apple,” though it’s possible he just made the story up: If you’ve been in New York City since 1997, you might notice the corner of 54th and Broadway is called “Big Apple Corner.” Barry Popik

My reply has been chopped up. Fitz Gerald’s column was in 1924, not 1923. It was found by me. Fitz Gerald said the same thing twice, and there is no reason to suspect that he did not truthfully credit the black stablehands. I dedicated “Big Apple Corner” in 1997. My work here is used without compensation or credit!

@Barry Popik: “Fitz Gerald’s column was in 1924, not 1923.” I do believe you’re right from a quick Google search. I’m going to re-research it, of course, as is my standard practice whenever a potential error in an article here comes up. But just from the quick search, I think you’re correct. At the least, I hope you can see from this that you weren’t one of my references. On your website, it very clearly states 1924 right at the top of the homepage. 🙂
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“there is no reason to suspect that he did not truthfully credit the black stablehands.” The thing there is more of a skeptical mindset that I take to everything here. It’s amazing how often such first hand anecdotes upon deeper research turn out to be untrue or at the least seemingly unlikely. Journalists particularly like to embellish stories, or sometimes just completely make up a good origin story for the sake of having a story to tell when in fact sometimes the real back story was just things like sitting around thinking about whatever until they came up with something, like a nickname. In my research over the years, I’ve come across loads of such false or embellished anecdotes. So I’ve become very skeptical over the years of any such anecdote where there isn’t multiple primary sources for a story. Besides embellishing or making things up, human memory simply isn’t that great, and we all have an amazing number of false memories.
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Am I being overly skeptical? At times very probably. But I detest getting things wrong (that 1924 / 1923 thing is irking me right now, for instance… Kills me when I get such things even slightly incorrect. ;-)). So to guard against that, unless I have multiple primary sources for such an anecdote, I’ll almost always put in the caveat, if there is just one primary source. 🙂
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In any event, thank you for catching that 1923 thing. Once I’m done doing a deep re-research of the topic, assuming it definitely was 1924, which I think you’re right about, I’ll fix it.

@Barry Popik: I’ve never seen your website before. The primary source for this article, or at least the basis, was Dr. Gerald Cohen’s work on the subject, as mentioned in the article. I, of course, double check everything with numerous sources (mostly primary if I can find them), but Dr. Cohen’s work was the starting point.
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From your website and listed name in your comment, I’m guessing you are not Dr. Cohen. Now, Dr. Cohen may well have used your work, and if you really were the one to uncover Fitz Gerald’s work, then I suspect he did. But my notes on the subject don’t mention that, else I’d have referenced you as well along with him.
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From your website, it does seem like you’ve put a lot of work into this subject. So it’s not surprising that your work on the subject and this one match up in the core facts. It does appear you’ve added a lot more detail than is appropriate for a TIFO style article, so I would recommend anyone reading this who wants to learn more to check out your site. But facts are facts. If I were to deviate from them to distance myself from Dr. Cohen’s work (or yours as well as it appears), then the article wouldn’t be perfectly accurate given the current state of human knowledge on the particular subject. 🙂
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So in the end, after looking over your site, I have little doubt you’ve put a lot of work into this area. But you were not one of my references, as I never came across your site. For this subject in particular I spent more time in a library than on Google after I came across Dr. Cohen’s work. 🙂

You’ve never seen seen my website before? Dude, you’ve credited my website before! This is one TIFO article that lists no references whatsoever. List them!

Dr. Cohen and I were co-authors of the ‘Big Apple” book. I found that 1924 “Around the Big Apple” column–not Dr. Cohen, and it’s not from 1923. I found it–after hundreds of hours searching the New York Morning Telegraph. I found that Fitz Gerald visited the New Orleans Fair Grounds in 1920–not Dr. Cohen. I worked five years to dedicate Big Apple Corner–not Dr. Cohen. Yes, facts are facts, but you get them wrong and you do not credit the source.

@Barry Popik: “you’ve credited my website before!” I haven’t written much on this site for about a year now (just mostly editing now), and I don’t have a photographic memory. 🙂 Out of curiosity, which article? This is the first one I’ve dealt with this topic on, though it’s possible one of TIFO’s writers has covered areas of it. I’m not sure. (There are over 2,300 articles here now, and I certainly don’t remember them all, even among those I’ve written. :-)). But I hope at the least the fact that apparently you have been credited before demonstrates I have no qualms about crediting you on things. 😉
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“but you get them wrong” Nobody bats a thousand. Encyclopedia Britannica, perhaps one of the most accurate huge sample-size general knowledge works in human history has about 2.92 errors per science article on their website. TIFO has a much better rate than that, but of course we don’t cover near the depth or breadth of works, so it’s easier for us. Britannica’s rate is really quite remarkable given the vastness of their work. As noted, I’m also not hesitant to be overly skeptical on things, which helps the accuracy a bit. We’re more about giving people a taste of a subject, to perhaps interest them in going to learn more.
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“and you do not credit the source.” As I said, my basis was an article I read from Dr. Cohen (who I credited), which did not mention you. Beyond that, I went and triple checked everything myself as always, and again, while all those sources I read to triple check things may well have been referencing your work, nobody mentioned it explicitly. This isn’t to demean your work in any way, I am very grateful for it (beyond this article, there aren’t enough people who do proper research on things), but I don’t know how I’m supposed to have referenced you when I have no notes nor memory of reading your work on the subject, or anyone mentioning it from what I did read.
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Now that I know you are the ultimate source uncovering Fitz Gerald’s work, I’m happy to send people to your site to read more if they’re interested in more details and credit you appropriately. But doing that beforehand simply isn’t something I could have done, having been previously ignorant of your involvement.
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As you note, the vast majority of TIFO articles list the references for each piece of information (excepting Eddie’s articles, but most of his are Beatles based and he’s one of the world’s leading experts there, so often writes them off the information in his head), so hopefully that makes it clear we’re always happy to do that. (And in fact, it’s actually among the rules I send to new authors.) In this case, beyond Dr. Cohen nothing is listed simply because what I read from Dr. Cohen pretty much summed it up.
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For each point I like to include just one primary reference for people to explore more on, though of course always double check things with multiple sources, just to make sure the listed one is correct. (I usually pick the most reputable one of the bunch for each piece of information to list, and the one that has the most additional information.) In most articles, information is pulled from numerous sources, which is why there are (usually) numerous references. But what I read from Dr. Cohen had everything (and more). So there seemed little point in including all my secondary sources. He was the best one I knew about. Had I known of your work being the basis of what I read from Dr. Cohen, I would have simply referenced you, but I did not know about it at the time, which is unfortunate as you’ve got some interesting additional information there I’d have liked to include. 🙂
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This is one of those cases where spending a little more time web-searching a topic, instead of other forms of research, would have been more beneficial, as I no doubt would have come across your site at some point. 🙂 I do apologize for giving Dr. Cohen the credit for your work, but from what I read, it seemed like he was the one who made these discoveries so I thought it only fitting to use him as the primary source. Once I’m done re-researching the 1923/1924 bit and other such things, I’ll edit the above to include a mention of your work. (Any time a potential error is discovered, I re-research the entire article to make sure whatever source resulted in the one error didn’t result in any others. Sometimes it is just a typo, but other times not, and in this case my notes say 1923 for some reason, which itself could be just a typo in my notes. But regardless, one never can tell whether it was simply a typo or a faulty source without re-researching.)

Again: This is one TIFO article that lists no references whatsoever. List them!

FYI, it was the “Oscar” article. You took about five paragraphs from my website. Mental Floss reprinted it this past week.

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