A nickname is a shortened form of a person's name. A nickname also can be a descriptive name for a person, place or thing. Many American cities have nicknames.These can help establish an identity, spread pride among citizens and build unity.

别名是一个人名字的缩写形式。也可以是一个人、地方或物品的描述性名称。许多美国城市都有别名，这样可以帮助树立城市的形象、在市民间传播自豪感、建立团结。

A few years ago, some marketing and advertising experts were asked to name the best nickname for an American city. The winner was the nation’s largest city, New York.The top nickname was “The Big Apple”.

几年前，一些市场和广告专家被邀请给美国城市最佳别名提名。获胜者是美国最大的城市纽约。最佳别名是“大苹果”。

You might wonder how New York got this nickname. In the early nineteen seventies,the city had many problems. The number of visitors was falling. So a campaign was launched to give the city a new image. The head of the New York Conventions and Visitors Bureau decided to call the city, The Big Apple.

你可能会想纽约为何得到这么别名。在 20 世纪 70 年代早期纽约存在诸多问题，游客人数持续下降。所以纽约发起了一场展现城市新形象的运动。纽约会议与游客管理局负责人决定把纽约称之为“大苹果”。

There are several explanations for where this name came from. Language expert Barry Popik studied the question and wrote about it on his website. He says John Fitz Gerald, a writer for a New York newspaper, used the name the Big Apple to mean New York in the nineteen twenties. Mister Fitz Gerald wrote about horse races. He heard the name used by men who worked at a racetrack in New Orleans, Louisiana.

关于这个名字的来历有几种不同的解释。语言专家巴里·坡皮克对这个问题进行了研究，并在其网站上撰文谈及这个名字的来历。他表示，20 世纪 20 年代，纽约一家报纸的记者约翰·菲茨·杰拉德使用“大苹果”来指代纽约。杰拉德先生是赛马专栏记者，他从路易斯安新奥尔良赛马场工作人员那得知了这个名字。

Mister Fitz Gerald wrote: “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.”

杰拉德写道：“‘大苹果’是每个骑过纯种赛马的小伙的梦想，也是所有骑手的目标。这世上只有一个‘大苹果’，那就是纽约。”

In horse racing, the expression meant “the big time,” the place where large amounts of money could be won. The Big Apple became the name of a night club in the Harlem area of New York City in nineteen thirty-four. It also was the name of a popular dance and a hit song in the nineteen thirties.

在赛马中，“大苹果”的意思是“第一流的”，指可以赢很多钱的地方。1934 年，“大苹果”成为纽约哈莱姆区一家夜总会的名字，它还是 30 年代一个著名舞蹈和一首热门歌曲的名字。

But it is not the only nickname for America’s largest city. Barry Popik’s website lists almost one hundred nicknames that describe New York. The best known are “theCapital of the World”, “Empire City”, “Gotham”, “The City So Nice They Named it Twice”, and “the City That Never Sleeps”. You can hear about the city in the song,“New York, New York” by Frank Sinatra.

但是，这并不是美国最大的城市纽约唯一的别名。巴里·坡皮克的网站列举了近100 个指代纽约的别名。其中最著名的是“世界之都”、“帝国城”、“哥谭镇”、“好听的名字用两次的城市”、还有“不夜城”。你可以在法兰克·辛纳屈演唱的“纽约、纽约”这首歌中了解纽约。