Since 1953, the National Hurricane Center has prepared a list of names for hurricanes and tropical storms each year. Until 1979, the lists were made up only of women’s names, but since then, the lists of names for hurricanes and tropical storms alternate between men’s names and women’s names.
Currently, there are six lists of twenty-one names each for hurricanes during a year. There are no names listed for Q, U, X, Y, or Z (tough luck, Quentin, Zenobia, and friends). Over the years, there has been an effort to make the names representative of different language and ethnic backgrounds, although they are still almost exclusively English and European.
If a hurricane has been especially destructive, the name is retired, typically for ten years, and another name replaces it on the lists. In 1979 for the first time a man’s name for a hurricane was retired, and that year, retirement came to two gentlemen: David and Frederic. If there are more than twenty-one named tropical storms and hurricanes in a season, Greek letters are used to refer to the additional storms: Alpha, Beta, Gamma and so on.
During the year, storms are named alphabetically in chronological order. So, the first storm of the season always begins with a; we have already (2008) seen Tropical Storm Arthur come and go. By the way, a tropical storm has winds of at least 39 m.p.h. At 74 m.p.h. a tropical storm becomes a hurricane.
There are two hurricane seasons each year. The hurricane season in the Atlantic, Gulf of Mexico, Caribbean, and Central Pacific runs from June 1 to November 30. The Eastern Pacific hurricane season is from May 15 to November 30.
Here are the names of hurricanes for 2008, with notes on the names. In even-numbered years, the list begins with a man’s name. In odd-numbered years, the list begins with a woman’s name: Andrea in 2007, Ana in 2009.
Arthur – English and French
Bertha – German and English
Cristobal – Spanish (variant of Christopher)
Dolly – English (nickname for Dorothy or Dolores)
Edouard – French (variant of Edward)
Fay – English
Gustav – German and Scandinavian
Hanna – Scandinavian, Finnish, Polish, Ukrainian, German, Dutch, Icelandic (variant of Hannah, from the Bible)
Ike – English (nickname for Isaac, from the Bible), best known as the nickname of President Dwight David Eisenhower
Josephine – English and German (variant of the French Joséphine, feminine form of Joseph, from the Bible)
Kyle – English, from a Scottish surname
Laura – English, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Romanian, Finnish, Estonian, Hungarian, Polish, Slovene, Scandinavian, German from the Latin word for laurel
Marco – Italian, Spanish, Portuguese variant of Mark, an English and Russian variant of the Biblical Marcus, a variant of the English and original Latin Marcus
Nana – Variant of Greek Ioanna, feminine form of Ioannes or John (from the Bible); there is also a Japanese name Nana
Omar – Arabic (variant of Umar) and Hebrew (from the Bible)
Paloma – Spanish (means pigeon or dove)
Rene – French, German, Slovak, Czech variant of Latin Renatus (re-natus, born again)
Sally – nickname for English, French, German, Hebrew Sarah (from the Bible)
Teddy – English nickname for Theodore (English variant of Greek Theodorus, from the Bible) or Edward (from Old English and Polish)
Vicky – nickname for Victoria, feminine form of Victor (variant of Latin Victorius)
Wilfred – English
(Most of the information on the orgins of the names comes from Behind the Name.)
The list has five English nicknames: Dolly, Ike, Sally, Teddy, and Vicky. Other than the Japanese variant of Nana and the Arabic variant of Omar, the names are limited to origins in European languages and Biblical Hebrew. Eight names can be traced to the Bible, but aside from Omar (which has both an Arabic and a Biblical Hebrew root), no names come from other religious traditions.
If we study this list long enough, I am sure that we all can find our own personal storms in it, but living in Florida, I just sincerely hope that we don’t hear very many of these names for hurricanes and tropical storms, no matter where they come from, in the weather reports this year.
