San Francisco is in the cultural, commercial, and financial center of a region in California.
Northern California , often abbreviated NorCal , is the northern portion of the U.S. state of California . San Francisco ( initials SF ) ( [ sæn_frənˈsɪskoʊ ] , Spanish for Saint Francis ; Spanish : [ san franˈsisko ] ) , officially the City and County of San Francisco , is the cultural , commercial , and financial center of Northern California .