Ferries in the San Francisco Bay Ferry fleet can travel through Bay’s waters for more than 30 years, so choosing their names has always been a careful process. The nation’s first five battery-electric high-speed passenger ferries, currently under construction in Washington State, will be named Sea-Wolf, Rosie, Farallon, Doubtfire and Say Hey.
How did we settle on these names? SF Bay Ferry collaborated with the San Francisco Chronicle’s beloved culture critic Peter Hartlaub to rally Bay Area locals to nominate names and vote for their favorites. Hartlaub’s initial Total SF column called for readers to submit nominations meeting the agency’s naming policy guidelines. Around 1,500 nominations were submitted.
Once ineligible and duplicate submissions were cleared, SF Bay Ferry and SF Chronicle staff winnowed the list down to a manageable 27 finalists. Hartlaub’s follow-up column revealed the finalists and asked readers to vote for their five favorites.
More than 26,000 votes were submitted. A final Total SF column discussed the winners and the more interesting runner-ups. On May 14, the SF Bay Ferry board voted unanimously to approve all five names.
The first 150-passenger battery-electric ferry will be named Sea-Wolf and is scheduled to begin service in the Bay in mid-2027. The Sea-Wolf is the name of a book by famed Bay Area author Jack London, and its opening scene is onboard a ferry in the San Francisco Bay.
Rosie is a nod to the area’s iconic female World War II factory workers, while Farallon honors the protected Pacific islands to San Francisco’s west.
Doubtfire is named after Robin Williams’ popular alter ego from the San Francisco-set film Mrs. Doubtfire, and Say Hey is a greeting popularized by San Francisco Giants legend Willie Mays.
The readers who submitted the winning nominations will be awarded a year of free San Francisco Bay Ferry rides and be invited to commissioning ceremonies when vessels with their nominations enter service.