Why They’re Called… Metric!!!!
FINALLY an answer to the question most of us have been asking ourselves… “Where did Metric get their name from?”
Lead singer Emily Haines says “It came from a song that Jimmy [Shaw] and I were working on back in Toronto in the early days, like ’97 or ’98,”.
“Jimmy had a song that involved a sound he’d programmed into his keyboard and called ‘Metric.’ When we saw that word on the keyboard’s LED screen it looked so electro.” 
“It was a little cold and standoffish and we’re down with that. It works for us. Some people think it has something to do with the fact that we’re from Canada — which uses the metric system.”
“… if we’d wanted to use a name that evoked Canada, we would’ve called ourselves the Toques or something.”
Previously Names that Metric Rejected: The very first name that Jimmy and Emily had was “Mainstream”.
They actually put out an EP under that name…. but its pretty hard to find.
Now you know!
Jenn
