Hurricane Names

All hurricanes are given names. For hundreds of years, hurricanes in the West Indies were named after the particular saint's day on which the hurricane occurred. An Australian meteorologist in the 1800's began giving women's names to tropical storms. In 1953, the U.S. National Weather Service began naming storms. At first, the lists consisted of only female names; however, since 1979, the lists alternate between male and female. One name for each letter of the alphabet is selected, except for Q, U and Z. For Atlantic Ocean hurricanes, the names may be French, Spanish or English, since these are the major languages bordering the Atlantic Ocean where the storms occur.

So who decides what names are used each year? The World Meteorological Organization uses six lists in rotation. The same lists are reused every six years. The lists only change when there is a hurricane that is so devastating, the name is retired and another name replaces it.