Since 1953, Atlantic tropical storms have been named from lists made by the National Hurricane Center.

According to the National Hurricane Center, the use of short, distinctive names in both written and spoken communication is quicker and less subject to error than the older latitude-longitude identification methods.

The original lists were composed entirely of female names. In 1979, male names were introduced and now alternate with female names alphabetically.

The six lists of names are used in rotation, so the list used in 2008 will again be used in 2014. The lists are maintained and updated by an international committee of the World Meteorological Organization.

The only situation in which the list is changed is if a storm is so costly or deadly that using that name for a future storm would be inappropriate for reasons of sensitivity. In such a case, the WMO committee will strike the name from their lists at their annual meeting and replace it with another name.

2005, in particular, was a rough year for tropical storms, with five names being retired, including Dennis, Katrina, Rita, Stan and Wilma.

Since 1953, 67 names have been stricken from the lists. Several names have also been changed since the lists were made. For example, in 2004, Gaston replaced Georges and Matthew replaced Mitch.

The lists contain 21 names each year. Should more than 21 tropical storms occur in a season, additional storms will take names from the Greek alphabet: Alpha, Beta, Gamma, etc. 2005 marked the first time in over 60 years of regularly-named Atlantic storms that all 21 regular names were used and the Greek system had to be employed. Tropical Storm Zeta was sixth Greek-named storm of the year and brought 2005’s final tally to a record 27 tropical storms.