The international airport of New Orleans was originally named Moisant Field and the MSY identification comes from the airport's origins as Moisant Stock Yards, the name given to the land where the U. S. aviator John Bevins Moisant (Illinois 1868 – New Orleans 1910) crashed where the airport was later built.

The airport code MSY stands for Moisant Stock Yards. This seemingly unusual name for the Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport is a tribute to John Bevins Moisant, a pioneering aviator who died in a plane crash on that specific land in 1910. Before the land was converted into a commercial airport, it was used as stockyards, and the code was assigned based on the "Moisant Stock Yards" name that existed at the time of the airport's initial development in the 1940s. Although the airport was officially renamed to honor the legendary jazz musician Louis Armstrong in 2001 to coincide with his 100th birthday, the International Air Transport Association (IATA) rarely changes airport codes once they are established because of the massive logistical and technical coordination required across global booking systems. Therefore, travelers flying into the "Big Easy" still see MSY on their luggage tags and boarding passes, serving as a subtle historical nod to the early days of aviation in the region. The airport recently opened a brand-new, world-class terminal in 2019, but the historic MSY code remains the gateway's permanent identifier.