San Jose sits in the Santa Clara Valley at the south end of San Francisco Bay. It covers about 180 square miles, making it the fourth-largest city in California by land area, and had an estimated 989,814 residents in 2025, which places it 13th among U.S. cities. The 1990 census was the first to show it larger than San Francisco.
The name comes from the Pueblo de San José de Guadalupe, the Town of Saint Joseph of Guadalupe, founded on November 29, 1777. In 1943 the U.S. Board on Geographic Names ruled that the spelling should be “San Jose,” without the accent. In 1979 the city council adopted “San José” for the seal, stationery and department names. By the city’s own convention the accent is used in mixed-case writing and dropped in all capitals, which is why the logo reads SAN JOSE.
The city’s motto, “Capital of Silicon Valley,” was adopted under Mayor Tom McEnery in 1988.