Here's how hurricanes are named — and how to see if you'll share a name with one
Names work on a six-year cycle, but are retired if the hurricanes are "partiularly deadly or costly"
![Hurricane names work on a six-year rotation](https://static.independent.co.uk/s3fs-public/thumbnails/image/2017/09/08/19/hurricane-irma-0.jpg)
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Louise Thomas
Editor
Hurricane Harvey passed through Houston, causing devastation in its wake. Now Hurricane Irma is headed for Miami. It's awkward news for people with those names.
If you've wondered if a hurricane will ever share your name, there's an easy way to check. The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) keeps a list of names it uses. There are different names for each region of the world, and each region has six rotating lists.
That means that "Irma" and "Harvey" can show up as hurricane names in 2023. But that's unlikely. The WMO retires the names of cyclones that are "particularly deadly or costly."
Here are the names that are designated for the "Caribbean Sea, Gulf of Mexico and the North Atlantic" region — for storms that affect the US.
Hurricanes, the WMO notes, aren't named after particular people. They're selected because they're familiar to people in different regions. That way, they're easy to remember and recognize for hurricane awareness and preparation.
Caribbean Sea, Gulf of Mexico and the North Atlantic Names (the 2017 list will be used again in 2023):
2017
Arlene
Bret
Cindy
Don
Emily
Franklin
Gert
Harvey
Irma
Jose
Katia
Lee
Maria
Nate
Ophelia
Philippe
Rina
Sean
Tammy
Vince
Whitney
2018
Alberto
Beryl
Chris
Debby
Ernesto
Florence
Gordon
Helene
Isaac
Joyce
Kirk
Leslie
Michael
Nadine
Oscar
Patty
Rafael
Sara
Tony
Valerie
William
2019
Andrea
Barry
Chantal
Dorian
Erin
Fernand
Gabrielle
Humberto
Imelda
Jerry
Karen
Lorenzo
Melissa
Nestor
Olga
Pablo
Rebekah
Sebastien
Tanya
Van
Wendy
2020
Arthur
Bertha
Cristobal
Dolly
Edouard
Fay
Gonzalo
Hanna
Isaias
Josephine
Kyle
Laura
Marco
Nana
Omar
Paulette
Rene
Sally
Teddy
Vicky
Wilfred
2021
Ana
Bill
Claudette
Danny
Elsa
Fred
Grace
Henri
Ida
Julian
Kate
Larry
Mindy
Nicholas
Odette
Peter
Rose
Sam
Teresa
Victor
Wanda
2022
Alex
Bonnie
Colin
Danielle
Earl
Fiona
Gaston
Hermine
Ian
Julia
Karl
Lisa
Martin
Nicole
Owen
Paula
Richard
Shary
Tobias
Virginie
Walter
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