The MV Karl ferry crosses San Pablo Bay in Vallejo. The boat is named for San Francisco’s favorite weather feature: Karl the Fog.
Noah Berger/For the S.F. Chronicle
Senior lead deckhand Kakou Khoudiou throws a line while preparing for a trip aboard the MV Karl ferry.
Noah Berger/For the S.F. Chronicle
Willie Mays gets ready to cut the cake during a party at the San Francisco Giants player’s San Francisco home in 1963.
John McBride / The Chronicle
Biologist Jessica Witherly uses a safety shield as biologist Emma Kocina feeds Claude the albino alligator at the California Academy of Sciences in 2023.
Jessica Christian/The Chronicle
Naming a ferry, it turns out, is a lot like owning a boat.
The process sounds fun over beers, but at some point you’ll be scraping barnacles off the bottom, poring over a byzantine owners manual and fretting about how much your investment might depreciate in value.
Last month, we asked for your help to name five new electric San Francisco Bay Ferry vessels joining the fleet over the next few years. You crushed the assignment. Readers submitted more than 1,500 names, which we labored mightily to narrow down to a short list of finalists. (The barnacles in the above metaphor are the 50-plus suggestions for some variation of “Boaty McBoatface.” It’s. Been. Done.)
The 27 names that made the cut reflect the beauty, diversity and creativity of the Bay Area. From “Humphrey” to “Hyphy” to “Rosie” to “Ride the Lightning” (punctuate that last one with a Kirk Hammett guitar solo), the finalists nod to our history, culture, environment and local celebrities — of the human and cetacean variety.
Article continues below this ad
The next step is voting for your favorites in the poll released today. Choose carefully: Some San Francisco Bay Ferry vessels remain on the water for more than 30 years.
What’s in the running? We watched Chronicle readers suggest great names, from the thoughtful (“Chrysopylae,” Greek for golden gate) to the delicious (“Cioppino,” “Sourdough” and “Dungeness” … and how many of you sent your nominations right before lunch?).
Kirk Hammett solos and bassist Jason Newsted raises a hand as Metallica headlines a Day on the Green at the Oakland Coliseum in 1991.
Ron Riesterer/The Chronicle
We have a deep-cut reference to the Alfred Hitchcock movie “Vertigo” (“Carlotta”), celebrations of native flora and fauna (“Dahlia,” “Poppy” and “Mission Blue” for the butterfly), and so many nods to East Bay pride that we held a pre-voting poll to narrow them down. Get hella hyphy in the voting; both words could be painted on the side of our public transit. (The last ferry boat was named after Karl the Fog.)
San Francisco Chronicle Logo
Make us a Preferred Source to get more of our news when you search.
Add Preferred Source
Not that there weren’t losses along the way.
Article continues below this ad
“Ghost Ride the Ship,” “Boat the Whistle,” “Extra Guac” and “Boat Milk Latte” were casualties to a gauntlet that included two journalists, ferry staff and members of the board of directors and a focus group of boat captains who would have had to say, “Rice-a-Roamie copies on that request, thank you” a few dozen times a day.
(“Rice-A-Roamie” did not make the list. Neither did “Titania,” the queen of the fairies, whose name sounds too close to “Titanic.”)
The peak of ferry naming rigor came during a discussion of different leavened bread nominees on a Zoom call with ferry officials, when my editor Sarah Feldberg said, straight faced, “Dutch Crunch is a more aggressive bread.” The peaceful “Sourdough” advanced to the finals instead.
Grateful Dead members Jerry Garcia (left) and Bob Weir rehearse in preparation for a series of AIDS benefit concerts in 1989.
Scott Sommerdorf / The Chronicle 1989
And as sure as we are that Jerry Garcia would approve christening a boat “Wharf Rat,” it’s understandable that ferry officials don’t want one of their new multimillion-dollar vessels named after rodents associated with the plague. But we got you, Deadheads. Terrapin is in the finals.
Article continues below this ad
(Fun fact: You could play the 9/29/1993 recording of “Terrapin Station” while boarding a new electric ferry at Seaplane Lagoon in Alameda, and still have six minutes left as you depart in San Francisco.)
Chronicle readers also begged us to stretch the rules. Boats can’t be named after people or corporations, but labor leader Dolores Huerta and recent Olympic figure skating champion Alysa Liu both received scores of votes. Same with “Ferry Garcia” and “Ferry Rice.” We had a longer debate about Emperor Norton, who has been dead for 150 years. Surely any disqualifyingly bad behavior would have come out by now? Alas, Norton is off the list.
Klay Thompson and his dog, Rocco, in Berkeley in 2014.
Scott Strazzante/The Chronicle
But readers found loopholes. Seafaring former Golden State Warrior Klay Thompson can’t have a boat named after him, but his English bulldog first mate “Rocco” can. Finalist “Say Hey” is a sly tribute to San Francisco Giants legend Willie Mays, while “Doubtfire” conjures happy thoughts of comedian Robin Williams.
I was saddened that “Carbon-Free Willy” didn’t make the final cut. And pleasantly surprised by the survival of “Ride the Lightning” — a nod to both the Bay Area band Metallica and the boat’s electric power — overcoming the downside that the album title refers to the electric chair.
Article continues below this ad
“Frisco” may be the most controversial name. (I’m OK with it.) The “Star Trek IV” fan service “Nuclear Wessel” didn’t make the finalists, but San Francisco-based “Starfleet” is an option.
The local chapter of the Hells Angels uses “Frisco” on their bikes and their jackets.
Deanne Fitzmaurice/The Chronicle 2004
By far the hardest name that we removed was “Claude.”
More than a dozen people, including me, lobbied for the name as a nod to the beloved Steinhart Aquarium albino alligator who died last year after decades in Golden Gate Park. Unfortunately, Claude is also the name of an AI chatbot that has risen in the zeitgeist recently. After brainstorming creative ways to keep it (call the ferry “Claude II,” and include photos of the alligator on the boat), ferry officials polled random co-workers with a word-association test and the alligator lost.
Article continues below this ad
But our finalist list still feels close to perfect. Vote for the next five ferry names here, and we’ll ride the lightning (or “Cormorant” … or “Painted Lady” …) together in a couple of years.