NAME DROPPING

KNOWING THE HISTORY OF CITY MONIKERS CAN COME IN HANDY NEXT TIME YOU WANT TO IMPRESS YOUR FRIENDS.

NEW ORLEANS - The Big Easy
The origins of this nickname go back to the late 1800s and a famed dance hall of the same name. Eventually, the city adopted the name for its overall easygoing, gentle pace of life.

DETROIT - Motown
The moniker refers to the Tamla Motown record label, founded by Barry Gordy Jr. He took the city's other current nickname, Motor City, and changed it to Motor Town, before settling on the abbreviated version.

NEW YORK - The Big Apple
In 1920, John J. Fitz Gerald - a local horseracing sports writer - heard a New Orleans stablehand refer to New York as "the big apple." Shortly thereafter, he recycled the term in his newspaper column to label the New York horseracing scene and the city as a whole. Other reporters began picking up on it - gossip columnist Walter Winchell used it to identify New York's entertainment district in 1927 - and by the 1950s, it had become a common way to refer to the city, since New York represented opportunity for many people.

CHICAGO - The Windy City
While there's some debate, it's believed that the moniker originated in the 1870s from rival cities in the Midwest, "windy" meaning bombast, referring to the long-windedness of politicians. (The National Climatic Date Center lists the windiest US city as Dodge City, KS, with an average speed of 13.9mph.)

FT. MYERS - City of Palms
In 1907, the city received a gift of royal palm trees from Thomas Edison, which were planted along 14 miles of McGregor Boulevard. Today, 7 miles remain, and some of the trees are original.

INDIANAPOLIS - Nap-town
The city took on this moniker back in the '70s, when it woke up one day a year to host the world's largest single-day event, the Indy 500. (With the NCAA Final Four in 2010 and Super-bowl in 2012, things have definitely changed.)

BOARDING CALL
Next month, Branson Airport (www.flybranson.com)-the country's first privately financed and operated commercial service airport-is opening in Branson, MO, a fast-growing destination resort community. As the first carrier to provide scheduled service to Branson, AirTran Airways will begin daily flights to and from the new airport on May 11.