Most of us enjoy riding the ferry across the bay, whether it’s for work or a ballgame or just to savor a treat from one of the myriad eateries at the Ferry Building. And the views on the bay are amazing, especially on a clear day. Yet how many of us have ever even noticed the names of the ferries? And how did they get those names, anyway?
Boats in the San Francisco Bay Ferry fleet can travel across the Bay’s waters for more than 30 years, so choosing their names has always been a careful process, according to a recent SF Bay Ferry blog post. And the next batch of ferries—the first five battery-electric high-speed passenger ferries in the nation, by the way—will be named Sea-Wolf, Rosie, Farallon, Doubtfire, and Say Hey. All very good names, especially if you’re a longtime Bay Arean and are hip to the references.
But who chose those names? And why?
SF Bay Ferry collaborated with San Francisco Chronicle culture critic and Alameda resident Peter Hartlaub to rally Bay Area locals to nominate names and vote for their favorites. In his “Total SF” column, Hartlaub asked readers to submit nominations that would meet SF Ferry’s naming policy guidelines, and around 1,500 possible names were submitted.
Once ineligible and duplicate submissions were cleared, SF Bay Ferry and Chronicle staff “winnowed the list down to a manageable 27 finalists,” according to the SF Ferry blog. Hartlaub revealed the names that were finalists and asked readers to vote for their five favorites.
Readers submitted more than 26,000 votes, and the SF Bay Ferry board voted unanimously to approve the top five names, according to Hartlaub’s column on Thursday, May 20. The headline said it all: “Ferry names are here: New S.F. boats pay homage to a beloved film, a Giant’s nickname and some windswept rock.”
The beloved film is Mrs. Doubtfire, set in San Francisco and featuring the inimitable Robin Williams as a father masquerading as a female housekeeper in an effort to be close to his children. Say Hey, as every baseball fan knows, is Giants legend Willie Mays’ nickname. The windswept rock refers to the Farallon Islands out in the Pacific Ocean, west of the City. Not mentioned in Hartlaub’s headline were references to the iconic Rosie the Riveter or Jack London’s novel, The Sea-Wolf, which opens aboard a ferry in the San Francisco Bay.
The first 150-passenger battery-electric ferry will be named Sea-Wolf and is scheduled to begin service in mid-2027, according to the SF Ferry blog.
Readers who submitted the winning names will be awarded a year of free ferry rides and invitations to the commissioning ceremonies when vessels with those names enter service.
