United States military meteorologists began naming typhoons after their wives and girlfriends during the Second World War to mark storms on weather maps, according to Wionews. At the time, no single official system existed for naming tropical storms, leaving forecasters in need of a convenient way to identify individual weather systems.
While working on forecasts, meteorologists from the United States Air Force and the United States Navy tracked storms moving across the vast expanses of the Pacific Ocean. To avoid confusing weather systems with one another, they started assigning female names, specifically naming typhoons after the wives and girlfriends waiting for them at home. The practice spread among American military forecasters starting around 1944.
A tropical cyclone is the general scientific term for a rotating storm system that forms over warm tropical waters. In the northwestern Pacific Ocean, mature tropical cyclones are known as typhoons.
Official United States storm naming lists
After the Second World War ended, using female names for storms gradually evolved into an established practice. Before settling on personal names, Americans had attempted to use the military phonetic alphabet, identifying storms with code words such as Able, Baker and Charlie, a wartime radio spelling system that proved inconvenient in practice.
In 1953, the United States weather service officially began assigning female names to Atlantic tropical storms. Over time, the tradition of naming storms exclusively after women drew criticism, prompting officials in 1979 to begin including male names on the official lists in alternation with female names.
World Meteorological Organization cyclone naming rules
Today, the naming of tropical cyclones is coordinated globally by the World Meteorological Organization, a specialized agency of the United Nations responsible for international cooperation in atmospheric science and meteorology. The organization maintains prearranged lists of names for different regions, with member countries proposing suitable options.
Under the current rules, storm names must be short, clear, easy to pronounce and appropriate across the languages of each region. Unlike the wartime practice, modern cyclones are never named after specific individuals, and the standardized lists help meteorologists, rescue services, the media and the public share warnings about dangerous weather more quickly.
