Why is it so picky when it comes to the names of each Hurric

[HurricaneRyan]

I've only been on here for less than a month, but it seems as if choosing the names for Hurricanes is trickier than it is. Being the name-a-holic I am, I just gotta see, what gives?

Some people say Ian is "too close' to Ivan (if Igor gets retired). WHAT THE FRIGGIN' HECK? That name sounds NOTHING like Ivan. It's not Rina which practically just a substituition for Rita.

Ian is original, and it doesn't sound like a Viking like Ivan and Igor. It's English. Heck, it's the name of Teddy Montgomery's gay love interest on 90210 (lol). WHY would that be too close to Ivan? Dumb bunnies! It can't get any more fabulawesome than that.

Then there are people that are annoyed with this mess: Frederic - Fabian - Fred. For starters, Fabian hit BERMUDA, not the friggin' US. Bermuda people were allowed to send in a list of names as long as they started with F and they were easy to pronounce. They sent in names such as Forrest and that Frodo guy from Lord of the Rings. it was somebody from Bermuda that wrote down Fred, and obviously, the WMO sent that name and they chose it. Don't get all PMSing like Katy Perry's Hot N Cold for something Bermuda chose. Trust me, if a Hurricane with the letter M hit California, and they allowed us to choose names, I would have chosen Miley (for my queen Miley Cyrus) or Malcolm (for a Sim named Malcolm Landgraab in the Sims series). I mean seriously.

Well, I think I'll put it the question like this...with millions of names all over the world, why would some be deemed "too close" to other names that are in use? Or are "too obscure" to most people?


I DOUBLE DOG DARE YOU GUYS TO SAY A BUNCH OF NAMES THAT WOULD BE TOO CLOSE OR TOO OBSCURE (ESPECIALLY THE LATTER) and I'll defenitely be ready to debunk that!

[Florida1118]

The reason people get annoyed with that is they are not always saying it, they are reading about it. Rita and Rina....there was just no other name they could have come up with. We are rare as some of us know the seasons names, past and present....other only remember what the name was like or even just the storm w/o name. So if a person was affected in RITA, they might mistake that for RINA. Kinda close there, doesnt sound that different. The other reason you dont want close names is the whole bust thing. People remember KATRINA, but Katia is pretty close, so then by some it must be deemed to be a horrible storm....but then it turns into a Bonnie or Nicole and then they go oh the NHC sucks forget them....and so on. There are names that are too close, plain and simple. RITA And RINA....Ian and Ivan....taking a letter out or moving the letters around isnt too great. Hmm....Charley to Charle, Frances to Fran ( Fake new names for all that didnt know lol)....anyone can just take off some letters. If it remindes you of the storm, it is too close. Simple. I believe that the purpose of retireing was to not hurt people and cause upsetness on the name being used again...well changing A letter isnt doing much.

[HurricaneRyan]

But Fran and Frances were both used...they were BOTH put on during the first use. Fran hit North Carolina. Frances hit Florida. Both got retired. Considering they replaced them with Fay and Fiona, I think we don't need to to pull them into this.

[Florida1118]

I used then as fake examples like I said, I know frances didnt get replaced with fran. I was SAYING that there basicly doing that with names now and just taking off a few letters.

[Cyclone1]

Honestly, I think the retiring of names is more symbolic than anything. Sorta like entering a hurricane into its own weird hall of infamy. It's also useful for record keeping. Like, if there are 5 devastating Hurricane Arlene's, one every 6 years, it'd be kind of irritating to specify a year every time. I don't think people really get offended by hurricane names.

[HurricaneRyan]

Honestly, I think the retiring of names is more symbolic than anything. Sorta like entering a hurricane into its own weird hall of infamy. It's also useful for record keeping. Like, if there are 5 devastating Hurricane Arlene's, one every 6 years, it'd be kind of irritating to specify a year every time. I don't think people really get offended by hurricane names.

Yeah, and with so many awesome names out there, when a storm does enough damage for retirement, it allows a newcomer to step to the plate.

[Frank2]

It makes sense that the WMO doesn't want to use a name that can cause confusion with an earlier name (Ivan, Ian) or remind people of an earlier disaster (Andrew, Drew, Katrina, Trina) - hopefully there are enough names from different cultures that there should be enough to populate each list from year to year...

Of course the other issue is whether the names are used at all or whether a name must be retired after only one use...

[Ad Novoxium]

Retiring names one-time-in seems a bit much but there were one-time-gone names that haunt the Atlantic through their legacy (Mitch, Stan, David, and Inez all killed 1000+ total and were retired one use in). The first name to last only one use before being dropped was Gail in 1953 for Gilda (it's possible it was dropped because of it sounding like the term "gale", but the name wasn't retired, just removed). The first name to be properly retired on the first use was Connie in 1955 (it would have been Brenda, but the Alice 2 mix-up gave Connie the distinction instead). The first replacement name to be retired one use in was Camille in 1969 (Dora was used as a replacement name first in 1964 for Donna, but Dora itself was used prior to that in 1956).

In my opinion, one-use retirement is best if it's the standard way (if the name is significant enough, it goes, but keep in mind that if this really was the case, Gordon would be a one-time-use name in 1994).