Hurricane Names

To better track hurricanes, weather officials decided to name them. The names are chosen by the World Meteorological Organization. According to the National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration (NOAA):

"For several hundred years, hurricanes in the West Indies were often named after the particular saint's day on which the hurricane occurred. For example, 'Hurricane San Felipe' struck Puerto Rico on September 13, 1876. Another storm struck Puerto Rico on the same day in 1928, and this storm was named 'Hurricane San Felipe the Second.'"

Until World War II, hurricanes were given only masculine names. In the early 1950s, weather services began naming storms alphabetically and with only feminine names. By the late 1970s, this practice was replaced with alternating masculine and feminine names. The first hurricane of the season is given a name starting with the letter A, the second with the letter B and so on. According to NOAA, "the name lists... have an international flavor because hurricanes affect other nations and are tracked by the public and weather services of many countries."

Hurricanes in the Pacific Ocean are assigned a different set of names than Atlantic storms. For example, the first hurricane of the 2001 hurricane season was a Pacific Ocean storm near Acapulco, Mexico, named Adolf. The first Atlantic storm of the 2001 season was named Allison. A list of names through 2011 is available from the National Hurricane Center.

According to the NOAA:

"Whenever a hurricane has had a major impact, any country affected by the storm can request that the name of the hurricane be 'retired' by agreement of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO). Retiring a name actually means that it cannot be reused for at least 10 years, to facilitate historic references, legal actions, insurance claim activities, etc. and avoid public confusion with another storm of the same name."

For a list of hurricane names that have been retired, check out this site.