A system and method for selecting one or more real IP6 addresses from a pool of real IP6 addresses in a system. Each of the real IP6 addresses is associated with a physical interface or a virtual physical interface. A human or an application program provides into the system a symbolic IP6 address specifying a physical interface name for the one or more real IP6 address. The system stores the symbolic IP6 address in a configuration file and then passes the symbolic IP6 address to a socket API function. The socket API function checks validity of the symbolic IP6 address. If valid, an operating system function reads a control block or data file for the named physical interface. The control block or data file contains a list of one or more real IP6 addresses for the named physical interface. These real IP6 address(es) are returned to the human or application program.