Boston has many nicknames, inspired by various historical contexts. They include:
The City on a Hill
came from governor John Winthrop's goal, of the original Massachusetts Bay Colony, to create the biblical "City on a Hill." It also refers to the original three hills of Boston.
The Hub
is a shortened form of a phrase recorded by writer Oliver Wendell Holmes, The Hub of the Solar System.[1] This has since developed into The Hub of the Universe.[2][3]
comes from the fact that Boston is one of the oldest cities in the United States. It is also used in reference to the Boston Red Sox (The Olde Towne Team).[citation needed]
^Holmes, Oliver Wendell (1858). The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table. Phillips, Sampson and Company.; Holmes, Oliver Wendell (1891) [1858]. The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table. Houghton, Mifflin and Company. p. 172 "A jaunty-looking person... said there was one more wise man's saying that he had heard; it was about our place—but he didn't know who said it.... 'Boston State-House is the Hub of the Solar System. You couldn't pry that out of a Boston man if you had the tire of all creation straightened out for a crow-bar.'"
^Bulfinch, Thomas (1942). Klapp, W. H. (ed.). The Age of Fable. Kingsport, Tennessee: Kingsport Press. p. vii.
^"Boston's nicknames: Beantown, Hub, the Walking City". The Boston Globe. August 10, 2006.
^"Words and Their Stories: Nicknames for Philadelphia and Boston". Voice of America. Retrieved July 11, 2017.
^"Their Nicknames". Decatur Daily Dispatch: 2?. September 23, 1889. Archived from the original on September 27, 2006. Decatur, Illinois. Found at listserv.linguistlist.org/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind0307b&L=ads-l&P=2093.
^"10 classic Boston dishes, and 5 places to find each one". Boston Globe Media Partners. Retrieved 2020-07-22.
^"SPORTS CHART OF THE DAY: Boston Is The New "Title Town"". Business Insider. Retrieved 2015-02-02.
^"4 Rings in 6 Years makes Boston the real TitleTown". SF Gate. 17 June 2011. Retrieved 2015-02-02.
^""Title-Town" --- How Boston Became the City of Champions". Bleacher Report. Retrieved 2015-02-02.
^Shaughnessy, Dan (2014-10-30). "Tom Menino was the mayor to a city of champions". Boston Globe. Archived from the original on 2016-04-10. Retrieved 2023-05-03.
^Sharma, Aashish (2011-07-02). ""Title-Town" --- How Boston Became the City of Champions (Part 1: Patriots)". Bleacher Report.