Why is New York nicknamed the “Big Apple”?

The roots of the term “Big Apple” take us back to the 1920s, to the world of horse racing. A journalist writing for the New York Morning Telegraph heard the term from jockeys and trainers who talked about the lucrative races in New York. They called the town “The Big Apple” because it was the best and biggest race – something like the big win or the big deal. The journalist liked the expression so much that he used it in his articles, and slowly the term began to take hold in the world of sports.

But the term soon left the horse tracks and found a new home in the Harlem jazz scene of the 1930s. Musicians used “The Big Apple” to describe the city as a center for jazz music. Anyone who made it in New York jazz made it “in the big apple” – that is, at the top of the music world.

Revival in the 1970s

After the term was somewhat forgotten in the following decades, it experienced a revival in the 1970s. At that time, the city of New York launched an advertising campaign to bolster the city’s troubled image. At this time of economic crisis and an increase in crime, the city urgently needed a fresh start.

The marketing experts chose “The Big Apple” as a symbol of a prosperous, vital and fertile New York, which should attract travelers and investors. The campaign was a huge success and the nickname remained firmly established.

Today, the word “The Big Apple” stands worldwide for the city that never sleeps – a symbol of size, diversity, success and the American dream. Just like an apple that is flexible and desirable, New York City is seen as the big bite that everyone wants.