By Chris Cosci

The search for the host of the 2012 Summer Olympics has already begun (you can never start looking too soon). With Paris and London taking an early lead in the voting, New York City decided to enter the fray with its own campaign. For city officials, winning hosting rights could help justify spending hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars on building that brand new stadium they really want.

To win this race, New York City needs to come up with some powerful strategies. In a brilliant, unforeseen tactic, city officials recently announced their intent to change the city nickname. They decided to say goodbye to "The Big Apple" and hello to "The World's Second Home." It's about time we replaced such a unique and instantly identifiable nickname with something trite and uninspired.

This attempt to create a new identity raises a very important question: why the heck is New York called "The Big Apple," anyway? For the answer to this question, I turned to the Internet. Despite having hundreds of comprehensive resources, the Internet comes with one major flaw: everybody with a Web site claims that their information is the definitive truth - even if they present entirely contrasting material. When you're looking for information, you have to sift through dozens of so-called "facts" to find what may or may not be the actual truth.

Such is the case with the origin of "The Big Apple." Many people credit jazz musicians with popularizing the name in the '30s and '40s, using it as a metaphor for success. One theory suggests that when jazz musicians were away from home, they were said to be playing out in the branches - also called "the sticks." When they played in New York, they called that playing "The Big Apple."

That explanation is okay, but "The Big Apple" was actually used many years earlier by horseracing columnist John Fitzgerald, who heard it used by a group of stable hands. It first appeared in a 1924 column in which Fitzgerald said that racing in New York was "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." For most people, this is considered the official explanation.

However, the speculation doesn't end there. Besides, even the articles that agree on the horseracing origin can't agree on the proper way to write Fitzgerald's name (alternate sources use FitzGerald and Fitz Gerald). A group called The Society of New York City History blatantly dismisses the jazz and horseracing explanations, boldly stating, "The real facts are quite well-known to serious historians." Throwing the gauntlet down, they offer the true origin, warning readers that, while they may be disappointed by the less colorful story, "facts are facts."

Their story begins in the early 1800s, when the beautiful and well-educated Evelyn Claudine de Saint-Evremond left her home in France and became an elite member of New York's society. After a short period of time, Evelyn set up a small establishment that earned a remarkable reputation among the in-crowd - especially the male in-crowd (if you catch my drift).

As her popularity grew, New Yorkers started shortening her name to Eve, which amused her greatly. She took the biblical reference a garish step further by calling the tempting ladies in her house "my irresistible apples." High-class clientele started referring to visits as "having a taste of Eve's apples." Before I continue, let me remind you that this is what the Society of New York City History refers to as the "less colorful" origin.

This usage of the word "apple" continued for decades, even appearing in a private publication called "Gentlemen's Directory of New York City." Basically a guidebook to fine bordellos, this fine piece of literature states, "In freshness, sweetness, beauty and firmness to the touch, New York's apples are superior to any in the New World or indeed the Old." Just another reminder -- they're not talking about fruit.

By the early 1900s, "The Big Apple" had become a common nickname for the city. However, over the next few decades, the name became sanitized and turned into a more family-friendly term - along the lines of saying "as American as apple pie." Having long lost its alleged provocative context, "The Big Apple" was officially adopted by New York City as a nickname in 1971.

Is any of this true? We may never know. If it is, that might explain why city officials are so eager to come up with a new nickname. And with a safe and innocent name like "The World's Second Home," we'll never have anything to worry about again - unless "second home" is actually another euphemism for "brothel." Then we're right back where we started.