2025 Tropical Cyclone Name Retirements (Including but not limited to the Atlantic Basin)

[HurricaneRyan]

There is a growing possibility of not seeing any retired names this year.

This would be a first for List 5, which has retired names on each use, including both 1983 and 2013.

[Category5Kaiju]

There is a growing possibility of not seeing any retired names this year.

This would be a first for List 5, which has retired names on each use, including both 1983 and 2013.

98L (possible "M" name): "Hold your horses!"

[zhukm29]

There is a growing possibility of not seeing any retired names this year.

This would be a first for List 5, which has retired names on each use, including both 1983 and 2013.

98L (possible "M" name): "Hold your horses!"

Never a good idea to doubt list 5 - it got a name retired in 2013 for goodness sake! If Melissa does get retired, that would be the 8th "M" name to be retired, which is more than "G" (5), "H" (7), and "J" (5), letters typically associated with peak season. Just for reference, the adjacent letters "L" only has 4 retirees and "N" only has 2. The last season with neither the "I" nor "M" storm making a significant impact was actually a decade ago in 2015.

[MadaTheConquistador]

There is a growing possibility of not seeing any retired names this year.

This would be a first for List 5, which has retired names on each use, including both 1983 and 2013.

98L (possible "M" name): "Hold your horses!"

Never a good idea to doubt list 5 - it got a name retired in 2013 for goodness sake! If Melissa does get retired, that would be the 8th "M" name to be retired, which is more than "G" (5), "H" (7), and "J" (5), letters typically associated with peak season. Just for reference, the adjacent letters "L" only has 4 retirees and "N" only has 2. The last season with neither the "I" nor "M" storm making a significant impact was actually a decade ago in 2015.

Also, if retired, Melissa will also be the second third gen name after Ian to get retired. It appears that some of the models are REALLY going guns blazing with future Melissa and even have her being a C5 monster. If this happens, I believe it'll be only the second time in history we have at least 3 C5s in one season.

[HurricaneRyan]

There is a growing possibility of not seeing any retired names this year.

This would be a first for List 5, which has retired names on each use, including both 1983 and 2013.

Growing possibility suddenly looking less possible

Michelle's daughter and Marilyn's granddaughter wanting to be her own woman clearly, potentially

[MadaTheConquistador]

Some of the models show Melissa being a monstrous C5 and it looks like some even have her pressure being below 900mb (though it's absolutely not guaranteed, as this has been one of the most difficult storms to forecast in recent memory), and to a further extent, lower than Milton's. While it's not likely at the moment, Florida impacts are also not out of the question if she continues going west. If the impacts happen to be very severe in places like Jamaica and Cuba, I think Melissa will be almost assured retirement, and if retired, some replacement ideas I have are Monique, Megan, Mabel, Monica, Mallory, Maisie, Madison, and Miranda.

Also, if it wasn't for Subtropical Storm Karen, which didn't even last a day, this system would be named Lorenzo instead. I wonder if Mother Nature was like "We already had a C5 storm named Lorenzo last time, so instead I'm gonna name the disturbance entering the very hot waters of the Caribbean Melissa", continuing this supposed "M" curse.

[CrazyC83]

There is a growing possibility of not seeing any retired names this year.

This would be a first for List 5, which has retired names on each use, including both 1983 and 2013.

Growing possibility suddenly looking less possible

Michelle's daughter and Marilyn's granddaughter wanting to be her own woman clearly, potentially

Say hello to Molly, or Meredith, or Marcia, or Mallory, or something...

[HurricaneRyan]

There is a growing possibility of not seeing any retired names this year.

This would be a first for List 5, which has retired names on each use, including both 1983 and 2013.

Growing possibility suddenly looking less possible

Michelle's daughter and Marilyn's granddaughter wanting to be her own woman clearly, potentially

Say hello to Molly, or Meredith, or Marcia, or Mallory, or something...

That's the one good thing about the "M" curse is that there are a LOT more common M names than I names.

[Torino]

Melissa might become the 100th retired name in the Atlantic.

[zhukm29]

There is a growing possibility of not seeing any retired names this year.

This would be a first for List 5, which has retired names on each use, including both 1983 and 2013.

Growing possibility suddenly looking less possible

Michelle's daughter and Marilyn's granddaughter wanting to be her own woman clearly, potentially

This comment made me realize the progression of retirements for this position of this list: Marilyn was retired as a Cat 3, Michelle was retired as a Cat 4, and the models seem to indicate that Melissa has a chance to retire as a Cat 5... each generation making sure they end up stronger than their predecessor! I fear how Melissa's replacement will be retired (or it just wraps around and it gets retired as a TS)

[zhukm29]

Growing possibility suddenly looking less possible

Michelle's daughter and Marilyn's granddaughter wanting to be her own woman clearly, potentially

Say hello to Molly, or Meredith, or Marcia, or Mallory, or something...

That's the one good thing about the "M" curse is that there are a LOT more common M names than I names.

Second most common first initial for names as a matter of fact! Funnily enough, the letter "J" is the most frequent first letter for names, so if the people who added "J" to the alphabet (the most recent addition by the way, as a fun fact) added it before "I" instead of after it, finding reasonable retirements would be so much easier (looking at you, Isaias )

[Cleveland Kent Evans]

Second most common first initial for names as a matter of fact! Funnily enough, the letter "J" is the most frequent first letter for names, so if the people who added "J" to the alphabet (the most recent addition by the way, as a fun fact) added it before "I" instead of after it, finding reasonable retirements would be so much easier (looking at you, Isaias )

I don't think the above is quite correct. I think that it may well be true that during the last couple of centuries "J" has been the most common initial letter among people in English speaking countries for their first names, but that does not mean that there have been more different "J" names in regular use than those starting with any other letter.

Among names given to five or more boy babies born in the USA in 2023, there were 1177 different "J" names in the raw data that counts every different spelling as a separate name, but 1615 "A" names and 1390 "K" names. There were 953 "M" names. I have to run off to a dinner appointment right now and so don't have time to look at the girls' list at the moment but will try to post some data from that tomorrow.

[zhukm29]

I don't think the above is quite correct. I think that it may well be true that during the last couple of centuries "J" has been the most common initial letter among people in English speaking countries for their first names, but that does not mean that there have been more different "J" names in regular use than those starting with any other letter.

Among names given to five or more boy babies born in the USA in 2023, there were 1177 different "J" names in the raw data that counts every different spelling as a separate name, but 1615 "A" names and 1390 "K" names. There were 953 "M" names. I have to run off to a dinner appointment right now and so don't have time to look at the girls' list at the moment but will try to post some data from that tomorrow.

Yeah if you go by names that are popular now, I read that the current top letter is "A" (a good chance that it being the first letter of the alphabet makes it a preferred choice for new parents). Although I'm interested if we count every spelling as a different entry, vs. counting two names separately only if they are different enough to be on the naming list at the same time, that we would get a different outcome. The reason is that you brought up "K", which probably is one that is more skewed by this rule (names traditionally spelt with C that get replaced with K, as well as similar names that often start with the letter, such as Kaitlin/Kaitlyn, Kristi/Kristy/Kristen/Kirsten/and all variants, a ton of names that start with Kay..., etc.). I notice this was just for the boys also, so I'm interested to see if the girls' list will yield different results.

Just as an experiment, I decided to go on the NHC staff list to see which letter was most common - and it's far and away the letter "J" (https://www.nhc.noaa.gov/aboutstaff.shtml): Jamie, Jessica, Jannette, Jack, John, Jeffrey, Jorge, Jonathan, Joshua, and Jim. Of these, only one has ever been used as the "J" name on either the NATL or EPAC naming lists (John), which shows the depth of this letter that there are enough "J" names to cover all the 10th named storms we've had since we started using the modern naming lists and still not have to use any of the "J" names of anyone currently on the NHC staff.

Either way, there is a great wealth of "M" names to choose from for Melissa's replacement. Since Jamaica will likely be picking the replacement, I wonder what "M" names are most common there.

[HurricaneRyan]

At the moment, Gilbert is the costliest hurricane in Jamaican history at 2.98 billion (1988 USD). Wouldn't take much for Melissa to break that unfortunately

[Cleveland Kent Evans]

Since Jamaica will likely be picking the replacement, I wonder what "M" names are most common there.

From the Wikipedia list of famous people from Jamaica, here are some women's names starting with "M" which would be eligible replacements:
Mallica
Margaret
Martine
Madge
Mona
Millie
Marcia
Maydianne
Mercedes
Mary
Merlene
Melaine

A Facebook post I found which asked people to respond with Jamaican names mentions (in addition to several of the above) Morene, Maxine, Mitzie, Marlene, Marva, Maureen, Monica, Millicent, Myrtle, Martha, Mavis, Marcella, Moya, May, Monique, and Marvette.

The posters on that Facebook thread definitely mentioned Marcia the most often, with Maxine also getting many mentions. So my personal guess is that Marcia and Maxine are among the most likely replacements for Melissa if Jamaica asks for it to be retired.

[Torino]

My personal favorite is Magda, but I think they'll go with Megan, Monica or Molly.