Hurricanes: Why do they call them using female names ?

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   agusfananiposted 12 years ago

   Hurricanes: Why do they call them using female names ?
   
   Why are hurricanes  mostly called using female names like Katrina, Arlene, Bret, Cindy,  Emily, Franklin, Irene, Jose, Katia, Lee, Maria, Nate, Ophelia, Philippe, Rina, Sean, Tammy, Whitney ?
   
   

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   Motown2Chitownposted 12 years ago

   There is no pattern of female names for hurricanes.  The only pattern is to name them alphabetically, as shown in your question.  In fact, several of the names in the body of your question are male names, e.g., Franklin, Jose, Nate, Sean, and Philippe.  One of the largest and most destructive hurricanes in U.S. history was Hurricane Andrew.
   
   

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      agusfananiposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      Thank you for your answer. Yes, some are male names but the majority is female names.

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   joanwzposted 12 years ago

   Actually, they orginally called all Atlantic hurricanes by femaile names, in alphabetical order, skipping the letters Q, X, and Z because there weren't enough names beginning with those lletters. I'm not sure why though it would be interesting to find out. In the late 20th century, they changed the naming patterns, supposedly to give males an equal opportunity at being a named storm. So now the names altenate between male and female names, still in alphabetical order, and still omitting names beginning with Q, X, and Z. The years that the names begin with a female name alternates with years beginning with an male name.
   
   I am not sure about the naming practices for Pacific Hurricanes. That's something I have never investigated.

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      agusfananiposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      Hi joanwz, I like your answers, thank you..

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      Larry Wallposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      Jokanwz is correct. The only thing to add is that names are recycled every few years, except for major hurricanes. There will never be another Katrina, Rita, Camile, Andrew , Betsy, etc. Male and female names are used to provide more names to use.

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      Daemonkinposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      Just to add to this, they started using male names during the 1979 hurricane season. I think it might be interesting to see if the pattern you may or may not be seeing is named storms striking the US.

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   lburmasterposted 12 years ago

   Not all hurricanes are called female names. It's alphabetical. There was Charlie, Phillip, George, etc.

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      agusfananiposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      Yes, you're right but it seems that female names  are preferable to be used. Thank you for your answer.

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   Daemonkinposted 12 years ago

   Originally all hurricanes were named female names because, according to the lore, the storms were like a pissed off woman.
   
   The official reason is because it's easier to remember names than lat/long coordinates that were used up to WWII.
   
   Now we alternate. One female and one male name. They use 6 lists over and over unless a storm is so bad that it would be tasteless to reuse the name. Then that name is retired, like Ivan, Ike, Andrew, Hugo, Katrina, etc.
   
   If more than 20 named storms happen in a single season, they start using the Greek alphabet to name storms.

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      agusfananiposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      I really have something new here from your answer, specially from the first paragraph. Thank you very much for your answer.

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   duffsmomposted 12 years ago

   Hurricane Andrew?  It used to be only female names but that has changed now and  the names you mentioned are not all female:  Bret, Franklin, Jose', Lee, Nate, Philippe, Sean......

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      agusfananiposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      Yes, you're right. Thank you for your answer.

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