The Broken Alphabet of SF's Westside Streets

Bay Curious

KQED

History, Places & Travel, Society & Culture

4.8 • 1.1K Ratings

🗓️ 13 April 2026

⏱️ 12 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

On the west side of San Francisco, the streets running east-west follow a bit of a pattern. They seem to be alphabetical, starting in the middle of the Richmond and going south, across Golden Gate Park, and into the Sunset District. Except, there are some anomalies in the pattern. Most of the names seem to be Spanish, but not all, and most of the alphabet is represented, but not all. What's going on? Additional Resources: From Anza to Yorba: The Messy History Behind the Richmond and Sunset’s Street Names Read the transcript for this episode Sign up for our newsletter Got a question you want answered? Ask! Your support makes KQED podcasts possible. You can show your love by going to https://kqed.org/donate/podcasts This story was reported by Katrina Schwartz. Bay Curious is made by Katrina Schwartz, Christopher Beale and Olivia Allen-Price. Additional support from Jen Chien, Katie Sprenger, Maha Sanad, Ethan Toven-Lindsey and everyone on Team KQED. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	From KQED
0:02.0	If you travel from north to south on the west side of San Francisco,
0:09.0	through the Richmond District, across Golden Gate Park, all the way through the sunset,
0:13.0	you may notice the streets running east to west follow a naming convention.
0:19.0	Anza, Balboa, Cabrio, A, B, C, and further south.
0:25.1	Kintara, Rivera, Santiago, Taraval.
0:28.8	QR.S.T.
0:31.2	They're alphabetized. A to Z. Well, almost.
0:35.0	There's no D and no E. There is a Fulton, but then There's no D and no E.
0:43.0	There is a Fulton, but then there's no G or H.
0:44.9	This is Carolyn Karris.
0:48.6	And I live in Ingleside Terraces in San Francisco.
0:52.0	She's a librarian, and she's into San Francisco history. So when a friend asked her about why a few of the letters are missing, she was frustrated
0:57.8	when the answer didn't turn up in some of the usual places she thought to look.
1:01.6	It just seems like the order should be complete once you started, since it seemed to go
1:06.8	from A to at least why.
1:09.0	Here with some answers for Carolyn is Bay Curious editor and producer
1:12.7	Katrina Schwartz. Hey Katrina. Hey, Olivia. I'm actually really excited to answer this question because I grew
1:18.5	up in the Richmond District and I went to school in the Sunset District, so I've actually wondered
1:22.7	this same thing myself many a time. And spent a lot of time on all these streets, I assume.
1:28.0	Yeah, yeah, indeed. So start us at the beginning. When did San Francisco even start naming its
1:34.0	streets? Because I know that would have always even been the case. Starting with the gold rush,
	...

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