How Hurricanes Are Named

Although hurricanes were not officially given names until 1950, some were informally titled before this time to make it easier for forecasters to tell them apart. In Spanish speaking areas, for example, hurricanes were named after the saint whose day it was when the hurricane formed. Also, during World War II, military forecasters began calling the storms after their wives.


When World War II ended, forecasters stopped christening the hurricanes, and resumed the old practice of just referring to them by location. However, this was usually confusing, as during the peak of the season there were often multiple hurricanes near each other. So, in 1950, forecasters began to use the old International Phonetic Alphabet to name the storms:


Able Baker Charlie Dog Easy Fox George How Item Jig King Love Mike Nan Oboe Peter Queen Roger Sugar Tare Uncle Victor William X-ray Yoke Zebra


These were used the same as modern ones in that the first storm of the year was called Able, the second Baker, etc. In 1953, forecasters began assigning different women’s names to the hurricanes, but without any real pattern, besides the fact that they were always alphabetized. This continued until 1979.


In 1979, a new system was developed for labeling hurricanes when forecasters decided to use a six-year cycle. They created six lists of names (of both genders and many nationalities), and used one list per year. At the end of six years, when all of the lists had been used, forecasters started over again with the first one. The next year, the second list was used again, and so on. This is the system that is still used today. The names for 2008 were first used in 1984, as list #6.


If a hurricane causes a particularly large amount of damage to a country, its name is retired from the six-year cycle, and a new one is chosen to fill the gap for the season six years later. For example, in 2005, the names Dennis, Katrina, Rita, Stan, and Wilma were retired, never to be used again, because those storms together caused billions of dollars in damage. The names chosen as replacements for the 2011 season are Don, Katia, Rina, Sean, and Whitney.