PORT TOWNSEND — The second and third 64-car Kwa-di Tabil-class ferries — one of which will serve the Port Townsend-Keystone route — could be named in July.

The names will be chosen from a list of seven finalists that the Washington Transportation Commission selected.

“Those are the ones that look closest to being eligible,” said Reema Griffith, the commission’s director.

‘Did the footwork’

Griffith said the transportation commissioners are scheduled to decide on one or two names during the first day of their July 13-14 meeting.

Griffith said that while up to 150 names were submitted by e-mail before the April 30 deadline, the ones selected for commission consideration had fulfilled the requirements of the agency’s naming policy.

The seven nominated names came from organizations that “did the footwork and came up with the names, rather than just a random thought.”

The proposed names are:

• Salish, sponsored by the San Juan County Council but also recommended by Port Townsend resident Tom Thiersh, a member of the Jefferson County Ferry Advisory Committee.

Salish refers to the Coast Salish people of Washington, Oregon and British Columbia and is also the geographical name of the inland marine sea composed of the Strait of Juan de Fuca, the Strait of Georgia and Puget Sound.

• Al-ki, sponsored by the town of Friday Harbor. It’s the Washington state motto, meaning “bye and bye” or “hope for the future.”

• Kulshan, sponsored by the town of Friday Harbor. The word is a name given to Mount Baker by indigenous people of the Pacific Northwest. It means “white sentinel” or “mountain.”

• Lushoot, sponsored by the town of Friday Harbor. The name is short for Lushoot-seed, a member of the Salish language family, which has about 20 surviving languages spoken from northern Oregon to central British Columbia and from the Pacific coast eastward into Montana and along the British Columbia-Alberta border.

• Tokitae, sponsored by the Orca Network. The word is a Coast Salish greeting, meaning “nice day, pretty colors,” and is also the name given to an orca captured at Penn Cove, near Keystone, in 1970.

The orca, Tokitae, was taken to a marine park in Miami, Fla., 40 years ago, where she was put into service as an entertainer and renamed Lolita.

She is the last survivor of the 45 southern resident orcas taken during the capture era of the 1960s and ’70s. Such captures were later banned in state waters in 1976.

• Kennewick, sponsored by the city of Kennewick. The word has several native meanings: “winter paradise,” “winter haven,” “grassy place” and “grassy slope.”

Kennewick was the gathering place for Native American peoples of the Chemnapums, Nez Perces, Walla Wallas, Yakamas, Cayuses, Wanapams and Umatillas. Kennewick is located along the banks of the Columbia River.

• Cowlitz, sponsored by the Cowlitz tribe. The tribe provided key assistance with pioneer transportation and commercial activities in what some historians refer to as the Cowlitz Corridor, which linked the Columbia River Valley with South Puget Sound communities long before the Washington Territory was established.

Cowlitz means “capturing medicine spirit.”

The seven proposed names will be presented to the commissioners at their meeting next Wednesday and Thursday in Olympia.

“We’ll be sharing the names we’ve got, and if they want to whittle the names down, they can do that,” Griffith said.

The commission established a “ferry team” made up of three commissioners — Bob Distler of San Juan County, Richard Ford of King County and Dan O’Neal of Kitsap County — to ensure that a subcommittee of commissioners oversees the entire ferry naming process from start to finish.

The commissioners also will hear public comments on the names proposed between now and when they make a decision.

The naming process was put into place after the town of Coupeville and the Swinomish tribe proposed the name Squi Qui, pronouced Sk-why k-why.

Squi Qui was a tribal leader who lived from about 1816-1874.

The Transportation Commission dropped the name when it extended the deadline with a new policy for naming ferries to draw more names.

No more individuals

Later, the commission said it would no longer name ferries after individuals.

The first 64-car ferry was named for Chetzemoka, who was a Klallam chief, with the Transportation Commission’s approval.

The ferry is now under construction at Everett Shipyard and is expected to be launched late this summer.

The second 64-car ferry now being built is expected to be launched on the Port Townsend-Keystone route in late 2011.

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Port Townsend-Jefferson County Editor Jeff Chew can be reached at 360-385-2335 or at jeff.chew@peninsuladailynews.com.