The Fig Newton cookie is named after the city. In 1991, Newton and Nabisco hosted a celebration of the 100th anniversary of the Fig Newton. A 100-inch (250 cm) Fig Newton was served, and singer and guitarist Juice Newton performed.
The Boston-based company had a habit of naming their cookies after local towns, and they already had cookies named Beacon Hill, Harvard, and Shrewsbury when the Newton was created. Roser probably based his recipe on fig rolls, up until then a locally and homemade cookie brought to the U.S. by British immigrants.
The Kennedy Biscuit Company had recently become associated with the New York Biscuit Company, and the two merged to form Nabisco —after which, the fig rolls were trademarked as Fig Newtons. Since 2012, the "Fig" has been dropped from the product name.
The cookie is made up of a crumbly pastry with a jammy scoop of fig in the middle. Nabisco's recipes are (obviously) a secret, but modern copies suggest that you start with dried mission figs, and add applesauce and orange juice, and a little orange zest as you process the fruit.