San Francisco , [ 23 ] officially the City and County of San Francisco , is a commercial, financial , and cultural center within Northern California.
With a population of , residents as of , [ 14 ] San Francisco is the fourth-most populous city in the U. It covers a land area of Among U. Prior to European settlement , the modern city proper was inhabited by the Yelamu , who spoke Ramaytush Ohlone.
San Francisco and the surrounding San Francisco Bay Area are a global center of economic activity and the arts and sciences, [ 30 ] [ 31 ] spurred by leading universities , [ 32 ] high-tech , healthcare, finance, insurance, real estate, and professional services sectors.
In , San Francisco had more than 1. The city has officially been known as San Francisco since , when Washington Allon Bartlett , then serving as the city's alcalde , renamed it from Yerba Buena Spanish for "Good Herb" , which had been the name of the first civilian pueblo in San Francisco, as well as the name of Yerba Buena Cove , which the pueblo was on the shore of.
Earlier in San Francisco's history, the uninhabited area on the northeastern side of San Francisco was called El Paraje de Yerba Buena , after the herb that was growing abundantly there. The earliest archeological evidence of human habitation of the territory of San Francisco dates to BCE.
