Will a South Carolina hurricane take your name in 2025? Check this list
What’s something that has a name before it’s been discovered?
Hurricanes.
Six years ahead of time, to be exact.
With the 2025 Atlantic hurricane season just weeks away, the National Hurricane Center has released this year’s official name list.
On it are names such as Humberto, Imelda and Lorenzo.
These names are part of a rotating roster that helps forecasters, media and emergency responders communicate clearly during storm season, where rapid response can save lives.
How are hurricane and storm names chosen?
The World Meteorological Organization curates the list, alternating male and female names in alphabetical order and pulling from various linguistic and cultural origins across the Atlantic region, including the U.S., Caribbean nations and Latin American countries.
The names are designed to be recognizable in English, Spanish and French-speaking countries, all of which lie in hurricane-prone regions.
The names also need to be short and distinctive to avoid confusion and streamline communication, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
This naming system began in 1950, when the United States Weather Bureau began using the phonetic alphabet to name storms, the National Hurricane Center said. The agency first solely used male names, but transitioned into only using female names in 1953, with Tropical Storm Alice.
In 1979, an alternating list of male and female names for storms began.
Today, the list includes 21 names in alphabetical order, excluding names that start with Q, U, X, Y and Z, due to the difficulty of finding easily recognizable names with these letters.
The 2025 Atlantic hurricane name list features an array of names. One of which, Sebastien, is of French origin, while others like Nestor have roots in the Greek language.
How are storm names changed?
If you’ve ever thought to yourself that a hurricane name sounds familiar, you’d be correct. Hurricane names work on a six-year rotation, meaning that the 2025 list is a repeat of 2019, according to the National Hurricane Center.
The only way you won’t see a storm name repeated is if it causes lasting devastation.
Names that become infamous, like Matthew or Hugo, both unforgettable in South Carolina and even back into the early 2000s, like Katrina, are permanently retired.
A few more names that were recently retired by the WMO include Milton, John, Helene and Beryl.
Retired names are voted on and replaced by new entries submitted by member nations in the WMO, striking the original from the repeated list and finding another name to replace it.
Others live on, cycling every six years. All retired storm names since 1954 can be found on National Hurricane Center website.
What are the storm names for 2025?
The 2025 names range from Andrea to Wendy. Here is the full National Hurricane Center list of storm names for this year’s hurricane season:
Andrea
Barry
Chantal
Dexter
Erin
Fernand
Gabrielle
Humberto
Imelda
Jerry
Karen
Lorenzo
Melissa
Nestor
Olga
Pablo
Rebekah
Sebastien
Tanya
Van
Wendy
What if there are more storms than names?
If more than 21 named tropical cyclones occur in the Atlantic basin in a season, any additional storms will be named from an alternate list approved by the WMO.
The alternate names for the Atlantic Basin are:
Adria
Braylen
Caridad
Deshawn
Emery
Foster
Gemma
Heath
Isla
Jacobus
Kenzie
Lucio
Makayla
Nolan
Orlanda
Pax
Ronin
Sophie
Tayshaun
Viviana
Will
This story was originally published May 14, 2025 at 12:33 PM.
