How are hurricanes named? - WALB.com, Albany News, Weather, Sports

STATEWIDE - Since 1953, Atlantic tropical storms have been named from lists originated by the National Hurricane Center and now maintained and updated by an international committee of the World Meteorological Organization. The lists featured only women's names until 1979. After that, men's and women's names were alternated. Six lists are used in rotation. Thus, the 2008 lists will be used again in 2014.

The only time there is a change in the list is if a storm is so deadly or costly that the continued use of the name would be inappropriate for reasons of sensitivity. When this occurs, the name is stricken from the list and another name is selected to replace it.

Sometimes names are changed. Lorenzo replaced Luis and Michelle replaced Marilyn.

Atlantic hurricane names

Eastern North Pacific names

These lists are recycled every six years (the 2008 list will be used again in 2014).

Source: Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), National Hurricane Center (NHC)