Green’s Dictionary of Slang

(US) San Francisco.

1855		Harper’s New Mthly Mag. Apr. 710/2: Only after he got here to ‘San Fran.,’ he could play only the light one [i.e. a banjo].
1880		Dundee Courier 20 Apr. 5/2: Explosion at San Fran [...] Gunpowder works, San Fran Bay California, exploded.
1899–1900		C.L. Cullen Tales of the Ex-Tanks 325: San Fran’s good enough for me.
1905		H. Green Actors’ Boarding House (1906) 3: Maggie Mooney, who done the fust livin’ pitchers in bronze at the old California Theatre in San Fran.
1914		Day Book (Chicago) 26 Feb. 23/1: His lordship was about to assist his wife into a limousine upon their arrival in San Fran.
1948		Kerouac letter 15 Dec. in Charters I (1995) 177: He long-distanced me from San Fran.
1957		Kerouac On The Road (1972) 59: I’m going into everything that happened in San Fran.
1961		W.R. Burnett Round the Clock at Volari’s 43: ‘I need it,’ cried Tom. ‘You think I’m going clear to San Fran and live on my relatives?’.
1991		Tribe Called Quest ‘Check the Rhime’ 🎵 Oaktown, LA, San Fran, St. John.
2005		J. Stahl I, Fatty 159: He heard I was ‘wheeling to San Fran.’.
2012		L. Berney Whiplash River [ebook] ‘Still in Vegas?’ ‘She out in San Fran’.
2012		M. Lacher On the Bro’d 58: ‘Dude, I’m gonna roll out to Fran’.