How Hurricanes Get Their Names

Every year, the Atlantic hurricane season officially runs from the first of June to the thirtieth of November. During those six months, forecasters at the National Hurricane Center in Miami watch the ocean closely, and when a storm becomes strong enough, it is given a name. But who chooses names like Arthur or Bertha, and why are some names never used again?

A storm is named when its winds reach about 63 kilometers per hour, the speed of a tropical storm. Before that, it only has a number. Names are used because they are short and easy to remember. That way, people make fewer mistakes when two or three storms are moving across the ocean at the same time. A warning about "Hurricane Bertha" is much clearer than a warning about "the storm near 15 degrees north."

The names are not chosen by the forecasters in Miami, although many people think so. They are chosen by a committee of the World Meteorological Organization. There are six lists for the Atlantic, and each list has 21 names in alphabetical order. The letters Q, U, X, Y and Z are skipped, because it is hard to find enough good names that begin with them. The lists include English, Spanish and French names, since all three languages are spoken in countries around the Atlantic.

From 1953 to 1978, only women's names were used. Since 1979, men's and women's names have been mixed, so a list goes Arthur, Bertha, Cristobal, and so on. In a very busy year, all 21 names may be used up. When that happens, a second list of extra names is used.

Each list is used once and then it waits. The list for 2026, for example, will be used again in 2032. There is one important exception. When a hurricane is so deadly or so destructive that hearing its name again would be painful, the name is retired. It is then replaced by a new name that starts with the same letter.

That is what happened with Mitch. In October 1998, Hurricane Mitch hit Central America, and heavy rain caused floods and landslides in Honduras and Nicaragua. More than eleven thousand people were killed. After that, the name was removed from its list and replaced by Matthew. Strangely enough, Matthew was later retired too, after a deadly hurricane with that name hit Haiti in 2016, and it was replaced by Martin. So the lists come back every six years, but some names never return. No storm will ever be called Mitch again.