# why is newark airport called ewr?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-newark-airport-called-ewr/333782>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [December 2, 2005, 6:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-newark-airport-called-ewr/333782 "2005-12-02T18:41:02Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 2

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Kalhoun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/3bc359/32.png) [@Kalhoun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kalhoun)\
**Post date:** [December 2, 2005, 10:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-newark-airport-called-ewr/333782/21 "2005-12-02T22:04:31Z")

</div>

> [@GorillaMan](#):
>
> Orchard Field, originally.

That’s right. But I thought the “\_\_ R D” all meant something specific.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![GorillaMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/50afbb/32.png) [@GorillaMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GorillaMan)\
**Post date:** [December 2, 2005, 11:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-newark-airport-called-ewr/333782/22 "2005-12-02T23:43:33Z")

</div>

> [@Kalhoun](#):
>
> That’s right. But I thought the “\_\_ R D” all meant something specific.

It wouldn’t surprise me if there was an urban myth which had turned the thing into a three-letter acronym. But nothing I can find suggests any other name than Orchard Field, and it seems pretty obvious that the R and D come from that. Occam’s Razor, and whatnot.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tapioca_Dextrin)\
**Post date:** [December 2, 2005, 11:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-newark-airport-called-ewr/333782/23 "2005-12-02T23:49:19Z")

</div>

> [@GorillaMan](#):
>
> Occam’s Razor, and whatnot.

[Cecil’s razor](http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a1_384.html), too 😉

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tapioca_Dextrin)\
**Post date:** [December 2, 2005, 11:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-newark-airport-called-ewr/333782/24 "2005-12-02T23:56:49Z")

</div>

And I knew that we’d [done this before](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=327613). Plenty of good info there.

[Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-newark-airport-called-ewr/333782.md?page=1)