How Are Hurricanes Named By U.S. Meteorologists?

Until the early 1950s, hurricanes were referred to by location and date of origin. But when this system proved too cumbersome, forecasters began naming them.
For centuries, residents of the Caribbean had named storms for the Catholic saint's day on which they struck. After World War II, U.S. Navy and Army Air Force forecasters in the Pacific who needed to convey information to ships out on the ocean succinctly began naming storms after their wives and sweethearts.
In 1950, the U.S. Weather Bureau started naming storms by the Army/Navy phonetic alphabet: Able, Baker, Charlie, etc. In 1953, the bureau began using random female names. In 1979, in a bow to gender equality, the bureau also began using men's names.
Each year now, the first Atlantic or Gulf of Mexico low-pressure system to reach tropical-storm winds speeds(39 miles per hour) gets a name of either gender beginning with "A," and the other storms follow in alphabetical order. The letters "Q," "U," "X," "Y," and "Z" are skipped because too few names begin with them.
The National Weather Service rotates six lists of names, but if a storm is particularly violent, the name is never used again, out of respect to its victims.

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