The practice of using names for hurricanes became widely used and accepted during World War II. Before this time, storms were either named for where they made landfall, or after the Saint's day that was closest to the time a storm hit an area. In 1979, male names were included in the list of the Atlantic and Pacific storm names. Hurricanes are named because names are easy and quick identifiers and are used as short-hand to keep from confusing two storms which may occur simultaneously. In the Atlantic, a storm is named when it obtains Tropical Storm strength (winds in the storm exceed 34 knots, 39 mph). Names in the list are selected and agreed upon in international meetings of the World Meteorological Organization by the nations who are members. Each year storms are named alphabetically, starting with the letter "A" for the first storm and continuing through the alphabet. See the current list of Atlantic Tropical Cyclone Names (Table 4).

From history one can see that hurricanes have affected the United States coast for as long as man can remember. The word "hurricane" comes from the Spanish word "huracan", which was probably derived from the Mayan storm god Hunraken.