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You can put Hogtown back in the pen. Return T.O. to your alphabet soup. Store the T-Dot wherever it is you keep your Hammer pants. Toronto has a new nickname.
But first, let's meet the panel of celebrity judges who presided over this historic ceremony:
Russell Peters: The Toronto-born comic was the first comedian to sell out the Air Canada Centre
Emily Haines: Lead singer of Metric
John Tory: CFRB radio host, head of CivicAction and the mayor we never had
Matt Galloway: Host of CBC Radio’s Metro Morning
Jen McNeely: Editor and founder of city blog She Does the City
Michael Cooke: Editor-in-Chief of the Toronto Star, Canada’s largest newspaper
Evan Solomon: CBC TV host, novelist and co-founder of Shift magazine
Vito Piazza: Partner and Toronto managing director of branding agency Sid Lee
Amir Johnson: Toronto Raptors power forward
After 500-plus reader submissions, and two rounds of elimination, our judges have delivered their verdict…
Welcome to El Toro.
El Toro. Does it sound silly? Give it a chance. It borrows the first four letters of Toronto’s official name, so it makes a sort of phonetic sense. It means “The Bull” in Spanish, of course, which judge Evan Solomon noted had a “delightfully multicultural tinge,” and fellow judge Vito Piazza said indicated that “Toronto has to be (and is) an aggressive player in North America and beyond.” The Toros was also the name of our long-ago Western Hockey League World Hockey Association team, which played from 1973-1976 (and featured local heroes Frank Mahovolich and Paul Henderson), so we’ve even got a bit of local history with the nickname. But mostly we sense that there’s just something fun about saying it. As judge Jen McNeely put it, “It does make me happy.”
And if, as McNeely worried, it seems to some that the city “doesn’t have enough taco restaurants for this,” at least it has the quality of inspiring some curiosity. As Piazza, a branding and marketing expert by day, figures, “The name has to have a little mystique. You want people to search a little, make it the topic of conversation. Somehow it feels oddly appropriate.”
The decision wasn’t unanimous. When we asked readers to suggest new nicknames for Toronto, they gave us lots of options—our contest drew more than 500 entries. They ranged from the openly dismissive (“Loserville” or “The Big Envy”) to the jokey (“The Big Toe” or “Gracyhurst”) to the exalted (“The Chosen City” or “Dreamopolis”). Repeat suggestions came for “EthniCity,” “DiverCity” and “The Big Maple.” The staff of Eye Weekly sorted through the list and winnowed it down to 30 candidates we thought were clearly superior to the rest. And then we put our panel of judges to work.
El Toro. It may take a while to get used to saying it. But it’s a proud name, a beefy name, dare we say a horny name? As Solomon says, El Toro is, like our city, “basically great.”
TORONTO'S NEW NICKAME: THE FINAL RANKINGS
THE WINNER
Several different readers suggested “Toro” as a nickname. One suggested “The Toro.” But the single reader who suggested “El Toro” is the one who carried the day. The glory (and the iPad we’ve offered as a prize) goes to Tim Sproll. Congratulations, and thanks, Tim. We’ll be in touch shortly to tell you how to pick up your prize.
THE RUNNER-UP
T-Bone: “It’s about food, hipness, meat on the bone, whatever. But it sounds ‘work hard, play hard,’ and that’s what we do in T-bone. It also sounds like an intersection for business, art, culture, geography, etc.”—Vito Piazza
“It’s meaningless, but it’s funny.”—Michael Cooke
THE FINALISTS
The Big Maple: “I love the Canadian reference, and generally like the boldness of the idea, but it seems derivative of Big Apple. A little too much New York Envy for me. ‘Big Melt’ is funny, too, but it has the same problem and it’s a weaker name.”—Evan Solomon
DiverCity: “Obvious, but that’s what a nickname should be.”—Matt Galloway
T-Town: “Nicknames don’t have to mean anything; sometimes they just sound good and roll off the tongue nicely. T-Town: it’s humble, to the point and has pleasing alliteration.”—Jen McNeely
THE CONTENDERS
The Rocket
The Tangle
The Big Small
The Hub
Pronto
Skyline City
The Core
Big Blue
Global City
The Fort
Skytown
The Major
TORONTO'S NEW NICKNAME: BY THE NUMBERS
500+ total submissions
14 contain the word “blue”
15 contain the word “maple
26 contain the word “tower”
30 mention diversity
3 mention brunch
6 mention snow
6 mention neighbours or neighbourhoods
1 mentions George Chuvalo, Junction native and the only professional boxer to never be knocked down
19 explicitly mention New York City
14 contain the word “little”
105 begin with “The Big”
http://ca.news.yahoo.com/toronto-s-new- ... aled-.htmlEl Toro?!? Really...
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![[B-o]](./images/smilies/drinkup.gif "Drink up")
