The MTA seriously considered naming its new “tap and go” fare payment system “Pretzel” — but officials were too worried the MetroCard replacement’s moniker would be mocked, according to a new report.

The salty street food was just one of many rejected names for the new system that ultimately wound up being dubbed One Metro New York, or “OMNY,” according to the Wall Street Journal.

“If you name it that, I’m going to retire,” MTA Chief Revenue Officer Al Putre told colleagues, according to the paper — joking that it would make him the “Pretzel fare payment program executive director.”

Subway and bus Chief Customer Officer Sarah Meyer was backing Pretzel, because she wanted to give the system an unorthodox title that caught the people’s attention, the Journal reported.

But she and other agency officials worried creativity could come at the cost of widespread ridicule.

“The fact that this is a tough town weighed heavily on all of us,” MTA Chairman Pat Foye told paper.

Other names the MTA considered and rejected included Liberty, Gotham and Dash. The latter was a reference to former Long Island Rail Road mascots Dashing Dan and Dashing Dottie, but it was already taken by Boulder, Colorado’s bus system.

Ultimately, OMNY was deemed modern and universal.

“I also liked that it had a subtle, gentle wink to ‘om’ which is a calming yoga reference,” Meyer told the Jounral.

The system’s staggered roll-out began at the end of May.

Come 2020, riders should be able to pay bus and subway fares via contactless credit card, cell phone app or tap-and-go farecard. Expansion to Metro-North and Long Island Rail Road will follow in 2021. Metrocards won’t be phased out until 2023.

For now, however, the service is limited to Staten Island buses and along the 4, 5, and 6 lines between Manhattan’s Grand Central-42nd Street station and Brooklyn’s Atlantic Avenue-Barclays Center station.