SIX

 One Word Sunday

Toronto is called the 6 thanks to Forest Hill ‘hood rapper Drake, who refers to his hometown as the 6 when he named his album, Views from the 6.

The SIX, 6IX

The most compelling one is that well before Drake became famous, people who lived in what is now the City of Toronto had area codes with "416" and the area surrounding Toronto used "905". Way back in the past, everyone was in the 416 area code so to distinguish the actual "City of Toronto" from the "Greater Toronto Area" you would refer to the former as the "416" and the latter as the "905".

 However, if you're a young person in Toronto you're most likely to use the new "647" area code, which is also only used in the City of Toronto (the equivalent for the 905 is "289"). So "6" could be the last digit of 416 or the first of 647.

I prefer the following explanation!
The other theory is that it comes from the fact that, before amalgamation in 1998, "Metro Toronto" was made up of six municipalities: City of Toronto, City of North York, City of Etobicoke, City of Scarborough, City of York and Borough of East York. People still identify with their former municipality, even those born after amalgamation.
And Drake won't tell us which one it is.

Song-ography

April 2016 - Toronto ON

The Toronto CBC station ran a songwriting contest called Song in the 6ix for an anthem for Toronto. The song had to include "the 6ix" or "song in the 6ix".

The winner was announced March 1 - Britney Davis singing From the Six.

I was puzzled by the expression "The Six" as i had never heard that used to describe Toronto.


Then we were walking around town recently and came across this shop with this sign.

Now I was really intrigued so did some Googling.

Toronto gets its nickname the “six” because the city that is now Toronto was originally broken up into six different cities: Toronto, Scarborough, North York, York, East York, and Etobicoke.

In 1998, the six cities were combined by the government of Ontario as a cost saving measure. After the regrouping of these cities, Toronto has become the 4th largest city in North America behind Mexico City, New York, and Los Angeles. Even though these cities are all formally a part of Toronto, they are still often referred to as their original names. One reason for this is that there are a lot of duplicated street names from when the cities were separate, so your address and location is more identifiable by using the old city names.




In July 2014, the rapper Drake announced the title of his newest album Views from the 6, and this started a huge speculation behind the meaning of the name and his influence. This quickly led to the discovery of the term’s connection to his hometown Toronto, and so everyone assumed this was Drake’s attempt at creating a new nickname.


The term six is more widely used now and even found plastered on buildings in the city with graffiti.

Song-ography is hosted by You'll Shoot Your Eye Out, a fantastic photographer and funny lady.