Why do we name hurricanes, anyway?

In short, to avoid confusion when there are two or more active hurricanes. In the past, storms were named after saints, with hurricanes only named from 1950 onwards, using the phonetic alphabet.

The names used have diversified since then, with a list drawn up ahead of each hurricane season and ticked off as each named storm develops. Particularly devastating hurricanes cause names to be retired, which is why we won’t see a Hurricane Katrina, for example, again.

From 1953, female names were used for hurricanes, prompting an outcry. “You can imagine that women did not want something as destructive as a hurricane to be associated with their sex alone, so with the feminist movement pushing the issue, in 1979 males and female names alternated,” Collins explained.

This does appear to make a difference, at least in psychological terms. In 2014, US researchers found that Americans are less afraid of hurricanes with female names. “People imagining a ‘female’ hurricane were not as willing to seek shelter,” said study co-author Sharon Shavitt.