Duke’s son:

For Ethan Wayne, the difference between the names John Wayne Airport, Orange County; Orange County John Wayne Airport and Orange County Airport is vast.

The youngest son of the late actor and longtime Newport Beach resident John Wayne said in an interview Friday he fears the Orange County Tourism Council is trying to strip the airport of the Wayne name in favor of a more geographical moniker.

“My family and I are disappointed and opposed to the recent rumblings of the Orange County Tourism Council to change the name of ‘John Wayne Airport’ to ‘Orange County Airport,’” Wayne wrote in an e-mail Friday. “It is already ‘John Wayne Airport, Orange County’ and I have no issue with that.”

A member of the tourism council said Friday that the group has never intended to completely eliminate Wayne’s name from the airport.

Tourism council officials recently visited Wayne and asked for his support to take the “John Wayne” out of John Wayne Airport he said — but a member of the tourism council claims there is a misunderstanding between the Wayne family and the group.

The tourism council simply wants to add the words “Orange County” to the airport name, said Gary Sherwin, president of the Newport Beach Conference and Visitors Bureau and a member of the executive board of the tourism council.

The name John Wayne Airport is confusing to travelers, because it doesn’t properly identify where the airport actually is, Sherwin said.

“It’s called Orange County in some airports, and the luggage tags say ‘Santa Ana,’” Sherwin said. “This creates a lot of confusion from the public standpoint. The thought behind this is to help simplify things.”

The tourism board has approached Ethan Wayne about renaming the airport “Orange County John Wayne Airport,” which Wayne said he would support, Sherwin said.

But Wayne said the Orange County Board of Supervisor’s original resolution to rename the airport in honor of his father in 1979 already includes the words “Orange County,” so it makes no sense to rename it.

The airport’s official name is “John Wayne Airport, Orange County,” according to county documents.

Orange County Board of Supervisors Chairman John Moorlach said he hasn’t heard much feedback from the public against adding “Orange County” to the name, or at least moving it, and he was open to the change. Moorlach will meet with the head of the tourism board next week, he said.

“I don’t know if a lot of people would be disconcerted by the change,” Moorlach said. “I don’t see anything being lost.”

Orange County Supervisor Chris Norby said the community and travelers could only benefit from “re-branding” the airport.

“If you look at the airport logo now, it doesn’t do you much good — it doesn’t tell you where it is,” Norby said. “John Wayne never even liked the airport. The planes flew right over his house.”

BRIANNA BAILEY may be reached at (714) 966-4625 or at brianna.bailey@latimes.com.