How hurricanes get their names – and why some are retired forever

Hurricane season began June 1 and ends Nov. 30, and so far this year there have been 13 named storms, beginning with Tropical Storm Andrea in June and, most recently, Hurricane Melissa, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

While the number of hurricanes per season can be unpredictable, their names are anything but. Years before a hurricane forms, their names are selected by the United Nations' World Meteorological Organization (WMO).

How hurricanes are named

A storm is officially considered a hurricane once its maximum sustained winds reach 74 mph, according to the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale, while a tropical storm is officially formed when surface winds are at least 39 mph. A storm is named once it strengthens from a tropical depression into a tropical storm.

The WMO maintains six lists of designated names for Atlantic and Pacific storms, which rotate every six years, according to their website. For the 2025 hurricane season, for example, the list of names from 2019 is being reused, and will be used again in 2031.

The six lists are gender balanced, but do not contain names from the letters Q, U, X, Y and Z because "it is difficult to find six suitable names" for the hurricane lists, according to the WMO. If there are ever more than 21 named storms in a season, the WMO pulls from a list of supplemental names.

The names on the six rotating lists are picked based on popular human names, Emily Powell, an assistant state climatologist at the Florida Climate Center, told ABC News.

"The actual selection of storm names, to my knowledge, has always been somewhat arbitrary, but in general names are selected based on their familiarity in the region so that they would be recognizable and easy to remember to the people in that region," Powell said.

The history of hurricane naming

According to the WMO, hurricane names initially were randomly assigned.

"Historically, storms have been named for a long time, but haphazardly and after the fact. For example, an Atlantic storm that ripped the mast off a boat named Antje would become known as Antje's hurricane. As weather forecasting developed as a science, storms were identified by their latitude-longitude," the WMO website reads, in part.

However, in 1953, the National Hurricane Center, which is a part of NOAA, started officially giving human names to hurricanes, a task the WMO took over 26 years later.

"The Weather Bureau began naming storms in the late 1940s before the National Hurricane Center took this practice over in the 1960s, followed by the WMO in 1979," according to Powell.

According to NOAA, the decision to assign designated human names to storms was essential in order to better differentiate them.

"These advantages are especially important in exchanging detailed storm information between hundreds of widely scattered stations, coastal bases, and ships at sea," their website reads. "The use of easily remembered names greatly reduces confusion when two or more tropical storms occur at the same time."

Hurricane names are announced every year before hurricane season by the WMO, which currently lists the names selected for storms through 2030 on their website.

Retiring hurricane names

Hurricane names are typically retired and removed from prepared lists because "a storm is so deadly or costly that the future use of its name on a different storm would be inappropriate for obvious reasons of sensitivity," according to NOAA.

For example, the name Ida was the only name retired in 2021, after the Category 4 storm caused over 100 fatalities in 2021. It will be replaced by Imani in 2027. Helene, which struck the U.S. as a Category 4 in late Sept. 2024 and became the deadliest hurricane since 2005's Katrina, was retired this year, according to the WMO. It will be replaced by Holly in 2030.

Before a hurricane name is retired it goes to a vote, Powell told ABC News.

"During the WMO committee annual meeting, a member may nominate a name for retirement and there is a vote to decide whether the name is retired or not and what name will replace it," Powell said. "The decision to retire a name is a more subjective process, as there are no defined criteria that must be met to be retired."

According to ABC chief meteorologist Ginger Zee, the names that start with letters in the middle of the alphabet are the most likely to be retired.

"Typically, more intense landfalling storms happen mid-season – the peak is September 10 – so you will notice more turnover in names that start with I, for example," Zee said.

"You will notice that some names, like Beryl, have been around since the name was more popular and familiar in the 1960s and 70s, but since it wasn't retired, it lived on all the way through 2024, when it was retired," she added.

After Melissa, the names remaining for the 2025 hurricane season are Nestor, Olga, Pablo, Rebekah, Sebastien, Tanya, Van and Wendy.