Hurricanes are named through a strict procedure set by an international committee of the World Meteorological Organization. The National Hurricane Center utilizes these names every hurricane season. 

In light of the recent passing of Dolly Parton, many may wonder how a storm could be named "Dolly" so soon after her death. The name lists are determined years in advance and used again every six seasons. The name Dolly was added to the list after the 1990 season, first used in 1996 and has been every six seasons since then. 

Tropical systems get their own names to provide clarity and recognition when multiple storms are active at the same time. One hurricane could be drifting toward the Gulf Coast while another moves rapidly toward the Atlantic Coast. Without clear names, broadcasts warning about one storm have historically been mistaken for warnings about a completely different one hundreds of miles away.

The naming tradition goes back centuries. For hundreds of years, hurricanes in the West Indies were named after the saint's day on which they struck. "Hurricane Santa Ana" hit Puerto Rico with exceptional violence on July 26, 1825 and two separate storms both called "San Felipe" struck Puerto Rico on Sept. 13 in both 1876 and 1928.

An Australian meteorologist named Clement Wragge began giving women's names to tropical systems before the end of the 19 century. The practice spread widely among Army and Navy meteorologists during World War II as they tracked storms across the Pacific Ocean.

In 1953, the United States dropped a two-year-old plan to name storms using a phonetic alphabet like Able, Baker and Charlie. That year, the country switched to female names for storms.

Storms were named exclusively after women until 1978, when men's names were added to the Eastern North Pacific storm lists. Male and female names were added to Atlantic and Gulf of America lists in 1979.

For the Atlantic Basin, there are six lists of names that rotate on a six-year cycle. A name is only removed if a storm is so deadly or costly that reusing it would be considered insensitive. When that happens, the name is retired at an annual committee meeting and replaced with a new one.

In total, 99 names have been retired from the Atlantic list. Ian and Fiona were the last names retired, following the 2022 season.

The name lists cover only 21 letters of the alphabet because it is difficult to find six suitable names starting with Q, U, X, Y and Z. Names are drawn from English, French and Spanish to reflect the geographic reach of Atlantic and Caribbean storms and the list is gender balanced.

When the list runs out during an especially active season, supplemental names are used. The Greek alphabet was used twice for this purpose, first in 2005 and again in 2020. Starting in 2021, a separate supplemental list of tropical system names replaced the Greek alphabet system.

Any member nation can request that a name be retired if a storm by that name causes significant casualties or damage. The decision is made by consensus or majority vote during the WMO Regional Association IV Hurricane Committee session that follows the season in question.

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