Since 1953, Atlantic tropical storms have been named from lists originated by the National Hurricane Center. Originally, only women's names were used, but in 1979, men's names were introduced in an alternating pattern.

Six lists of names are used in rotation. Thus, the 2011 list will be used again in 2017. The only time a list changes is if a storm is so deadly or costly -- such as hurricanes Gustav or Katrina -- that using the name again would be considered inappropriate.

Here are this season's storm names: