Big Apple

[3] A number of false theories had previously existed,[4] including a claim that the term derived from a woman named Eve who ran a brothel in the city.

The earliest of these was a casual reference on 3 May 1921: 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.

[12][9]Fitz Gerald reportedly first heard "The Big Apple" used to describe New York's racetracks by two African American stable hands at the New Orleans Fair Grounds.

[15]By the late 1920s, New York writers other than Fitz Gerald were starting to use "Big Apple", and were using it in contexts other than horse racing.

[9] Walter Winchell and other writers continued to use the term in the 1940s and early 1950s,[22] but by the late 1950s, if it was known at all,[21] it had come to be considered an outdated nickname for New York.

It was then that the New York Convention and Visitors Bureau – now "NYC Tourism + Conventions", New York City's official marketing and tourism organization – with the help of the Ogilvy & Mather advertising firm,[9] began to promote the city's "Big Apple" nickname to tourists,[24] under the leadership of its president, Charles Gillett.

[26] Today, the name is used exclusively to refer to New York City, and is used with regularity by journalists and news headline writers across the English-speaking world.