My column on hurricane names

[CrazyC83]

As far as adding alternating X, Y and Z names in the Atlantic (like the EPAC) for 22, 23 and 24, that might be usable. It won't keep us out of Greek this year but it might in some other years.

One idea: (odd - even years)

Xander - Xochitl

Yasmin - Yves

Zachary - Zoe

[ClarCari]

I think there are 4 options on where we can go from here:

1) Status quo

PROS: Easy to figure out; alphabet position can tell (normally) how busy a season has been; Greek letters stick out for being extreme and are well understood; can be adaptable to add X, Y and Z names.

CONS: Retirement procedure for Greek letters is difficult (they can't be replaced, reusing creates fear/confusion and skipping is also confusing); what happens if both Atlantic and EPAC reach Greek territory in the same year?

2) Auxiliary lists

PROS: Alphabet can reset and make clear where we are from the 22nd storm; easy to retire/replace.

CONS: Either need 2 lists or many lists depending on if they should change annually; if fixed, names could appear in consecutive years if there are back to back such years.

3) Rolling lists

PROS: No need to worry about special lists; letters deep in the alphabet get used; retirement procedure is unchanged.

CONS: It could get confusing, at least initially, when W turns back to A.

4) Semi-rolling lists (i.e. jumping to next year's list if necessary, then shifting lists up a year)

PROS: Greek Alphabet no longer used; in most seasons, the list order remains unchanged; retirement procedure is unchanged.

CONS: Name lists have to be moved up years (i.e. if we use 2021 names now, the 2022 list must move up).

I think status quo should be adapted slightly after this year.
Very unlikely to ever reach the greeks in both basins the same year but in theory I’d guess since greek names are like numbers it’d be like Alpha-E, Beta-E, Gamma-E, etc. in EPAC.
IMO Atlantic and EPAC should share the same X Y Z names as auxiliary letters before going to the actual auxiliary list. The basins never share the same gender pattern for names in a season and they hardly ever reach that far down so confusion is unlikely for back to back years.
If we get plenty of greek names and plenty of destructive ones at that, I’d imagine the WMO may amend their current auxiliary procedure. The normal naming system will very likely remain how it is, but hopefully with added letters.

[Cleveland Kent Evans]

As far as adding alternating X, Y and Z names in the Atlantic (like the EPAC) for 22, 23 and 24, that might be usable. It won't keep us out of Greek this year but it might in some other years.

One idea: (odd - even years)

Xander - Xochitl

Yasmin - Yves

Zachary - Zoe

Personally I'm not sure using X is such a good idea, since there aren't many X names and most of them are just alternative spellings of names that are frequently spelled with Z instead.

I think there are enough Y and Z names to add a full set to the present Atlantic lists though. One suggestion for doing that:

2021: Yahir, Zara
2022: Yvonne, Zosimo
2023: Yancey, Zita
2024: Yesenia, Zane
2025: Yannick, Zoe
2026: Yetta, Zacharie

(This uses the French spelling for Zachary to try to maintain the English, Spanish, and French idea the original lists were supposedly created with.)

[zhukm29]

As far as adding alternating X, Y and Z names in the Atlantic (like the EPAC) for 22, 23 and 24, that might be usable. It won't keep us out of Greek this year but it might in some other years.

One idea: (odd - even years)

Xander - Xochitl

Yasmin - Yves

Zachary - Zoe

Personally I'm not sure using X is such a good idea, since there aren't many X names and most of them are just alternative spellings of names that are frequently spelled with Z instead.

I think there are enough Y and Z names to add a full set to the present Atlantic lists though. One suggestion for doing that:

2021: Yahir, Zara
2022: Yvonne, Zosimo
2023: Yancey, Zita
2024: Yesenia, Zane
2025: Yannick, Zoe
2026: Yetta, Zacharie

(This uses the French spelling for Zachary to try to maintain the English, Spanish, and French idea the original lists were supposedly created with.)

I think if XYZ are used, they'll follow the EPAC procedure of rotating two lists just to give us leeway in case one does need to be retired (also for consistency).

Also, Spanish has a few X names that we could choose from - in fact, "Ximena" is the more popular spelling of "Jimena" (coming at rank 128 in 2019 of female names in the US, likely higher in Spanish countries), and we can honestly switch "Jimena" from the EPAC list for a new J name (which are easy to find) if needed. "Xiomara" is also another very popular Spanish name, coming in at 654 in the US (likely higher in Spanish countries). Both would probably be preferable to "Xochitl" haha, since I don't think many people will know how to pronounce that

Zachary/Zoe (or the French spelling) are a great set of Z names for an Atlantic list. Zoe is apparently a really common name in France, as well as many of the island countries in the Caribbean. With how common they are, I'm not sure why Zeke and Zelda were chosen first when they decided to add new Z names during the 1985 season (to be fair, the Legend of Zelda was released in February 1986, so Nintendo was probably marketing the game when they were drafting XYZ names in October of 1985, making Zelda the name that came up first).

Honestly, it might not prevent Greeks from happening this year, but if it manages to save us the pain of having to deal with a devastating Greek storm that cannot be retired, it's a decision worth doing. Finding new XYZ names isn't as hard now with all the technology and resources we have.

[Cleveland Kent Evans]

Zachary/Zoe (or the French spelling) are a great set of Z names for an Atlantic list. Zoe is apparently a really common name in France, as well as many of the island countries in the Caribbean. With how common they are, I'm not sure why Zeke and Zelda were chosen first when they decided to add new Z names during the 1985 season (to be fair, the Legend of Zelda was released in February 1986, so Nintendo was probably marketing the game when they were drafting XYZ names in October of 1985, making Zelda the name that came up first).

Honestly, it might not prevent Greeks from happening this year, but if it manages to save us the pain of having to deal with a devastating Greek storm that cannot be retired, it's a decision worth doing. Finding new XYZ names isn't as hard now with all the technology and resources we have.

The people who came up with Zelda in 1985 were hardly likely to have been paying attention to Nintendo's marketing given their probable age. Zelda was the first "Z" female name most adult Americans would have thought of in 1985 because of the combination of Zelda Fitzgerald (wife of the writer F. Scott) and probably more importantly Zelda Gilroy, a character on the old TV sitcom The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis. This originally aired between 1959 and 1963 but there were syndicated reruns for many years thereafter.

[Cleveland Kent Evans]

If one really wants to add X, there's no reason not to also add Q and U. You could add all the letters if you added EITHER Q, U, or X to every list so you would end up with just two places for each. That would require some shifting of other names below Q but you could end up with lists that look something like these from P on (assuming nothing from Paulette on gets retired after this year):

2021: Peter, Queenie, Rafael, Sara, Tony, Valerie, WIlliam, Yvonne, Zosimo
2022: Paula, Richard, Shary, Tobias, Ursula, Van, Wendy, Yancey, Zita
2023: Philippe, Rina, Sean, Tammy, Vince, Whitney, Xerxes, Yesenia, Zane
2024: Patty, Quentin, Rose, Sam, Teresa, Victor, Wanda, Yahir, Zara
2025: Pablo, Rebekah, Sebastien, Tanya, Uriel, Virginie, Walter, Yetta, Zacharie
2026: Paulette, Rene, Sally, Teddy, Vicky, Wilfred, Xiomara, Yannick, Zoe