Why Do Hurricanes Have People’s Names? How Cyclone Naming Works

This Monday (the 12th), Hurricane Simon struck Mexico with winds of up to 175 km/h, classifying it as a Category 2 hurricane. But, where do hurricane names come from? Some people believe that only women’s names are designated for these natural phenomena, but that is not true.

The body responsible for naming cyclones is the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), which states that naming hurricanes has proven to be the fastest way to communicate alerts and raise public awareness and preparedness, in addition to facilitating tracking.

Naming also helps record the behavior and impact of storms, as well as avoid confusion among meteorologists, the media, emergency management agencies and, especially, the public.

Not every hurricane will have a person’s name, as each region chooses rules to identify the cyclones. However, the use of short and distinct names — both in written and spoken communication — has historically proven faster to remember and less prone to errors.

According to the WMO, the use of feminine names for storms began in the mid-20th century, when meteorologists sought a more organized and efficient system.

From 1953, scientists in the North Atlantic decided to identify hurricanes following alphabetical order — for example Anne, Betty, Carrie and so on — with a list prepared by the National Hurricane Center, a division of the United States’ National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). Male names for Atlantic storms were introduced in 1979 and remain to this day.

In other parts of the world, names follow the alphabetical order of the countries and do not necessarily receive people’s names.

How are hurricane names selected?

The WMO states that the selection of names takes into account the familiarity of inhabitants of each region with cyclones, aiming to facilitate understanding and memorization. Names are defined through 2029, with a replacement list.

Here are some factors that are analyzed to define hurricane names:

• Short, concise names to facilitate use in communication
• Easy to pronounce
• Meaning appropriate in different languages
• Uniqueness – the same names cannot be used in other regions

It is worth noting that a name can be withdrawn from the active list at the request of any Member State of the region if a storm with that designation has gained special notoriety due to human casualties and damages.

Hurricane names from 2025 to 2029

The list of hurricane names for the Caribbean Sea, Gulf of Mexico and North Atlantic includes only 21 letters of the alphabet, with the letters Q, U, X, Y and Z removed, which can confuse cyclone identification.

The names are in English, French and Spanish, used in a balanced way in the list to reflect the geographic scope of the storms. Here they are:

Source: World Meteorological Organization