Climate Chronicles: How are hurricane names chosen, and why are some retired?

PORTLAND (WGME) — Before the first storm clouds even swirl on the horizon, hurricane season already has a cast of names ready to go — but have you ever wondered who chooses them and why some are never used again.

Today’s Climate Chronicles question comes from Lee: How are hurricane names chosen, and why are some names retired?

The start of hurricane season is less than 90 days away, and before we know it, the first seasonal outlooks will start to be released.

This satellite image provided by the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration shows Hurricane Melissa, Tuesday, Oct. 28, 2025. (NOAA via AP)

Hurricane season in the Atlantic basin , which includes the Atlantic Ocean, the Gulf, and the Caribbean Sea, begins on June 1 and runs through November 30.

Each year, storms are named using a list of 21 names that follow the alphabet. The letters Q, U, X, Y, and Z are skipped because there simply aren’t enough common names that start with those letters.

Determining cyclone names (WGME).

Storms are given names to make them easier to identify and communicate about in forecasts and warnings. Names are simpler to remember than coordinates or technical terms, which helps the media report on storms and encourages the public to pay attention to warnings and prepare.

The National Hurricane Center assigns a name to a storm once it has sustained wind speeds of 39 MPH or higher.

Early storm names were chosen randomly and haphazardly, which caused confusion. By the mid-1900s meteorologists began using organized alphabetical lists.

Since 1953, Atlantic tropical storms have been named using lists maintained by the National Hurricane Center and the World Meteorological Organization, starting out with only female names. Male names were introduced in the lists in 1979. The lists now alternate between male and female names and repeat every six years.

2026 Atlantic hurricane season names (WGME).

Each ocean basin has its own committee that creates and maintains the lists of storm names used in that region.

These committees choose names that are familiar to the people who live there, names that are easily recognized and understood across the region.

Names will repeat every six years if they are not pulled.

Greek alphabet is no longer used (WGME).

There have only been two instances where the Atlantic hurricane season produced more than 21 storms and required additional names. In the past, once the original list was exhausted, forecasters moved on to the Greek alphabet.

The 2005 Atlantic hurricane season held the record for fifteen years with 28 named storms, reaching the name Zeta. Then the extremely active 2020 Atlantic hurricane season produced 30 named storms, continuing through the Greek alphabet all the way to Iota.

After the 2020 season, the World Meteorological Organization decided to stop using the Greek alphabet as a backup list. Greek letters are widely used in science and communication, and it can also be difficult to retire those names.

Because of that, the Greek alphabet was replaced with a separate supplemental list of regular names that would be used instead.

List of some retired hurricane names (WGME).

You may recognize many of the storms on the retired names list. That’s because these storms are remembered for the devastation and destruction they caused.

A hurricane name is retired if a storm was particularly deadly or destructive, usually after a request from the country most impacted by the storm.

When a name is retired, it is replaced with a new name that begins with the same letter, keeping the alphabetical naming list consistent for future seasons.