It’s a brave, new hurricane season and hurricane Bertha is gestating off the coast of Africa. Bertha is a great name for a hurricane, nothing remarkable about it and it’s not likely to be one of the recently memorable hurricanes like Katina, Rita, Andrew, or Camille. But what’s in a hurricane’s name?
Have you ever wondered about the naming rationale used by the folks at the National Hurricane Center? The only information that the National Hurricane Center provides is that the name should be short, distinctive, given (whatever that means) and not prone to communications error. So, let’s take a look at this years list.
The list begins with Arthur and Bertha. Next in line comes Cristobal, Dolly, Edouard, Fay and Gustav. Then we see Hanna, Ike, Josephine, Kyle, Laura, Marco and Nana. Closing out the season we will see Omar, Paloma, Rene, Sally, Teddy, Vicky and Wilfred. Nice folks, if you like.
Out of 21 names, I would guess that 15 are of European, mostly English, linguist origin. Four are Hispanic, and the rest seem to be middle eastern origin. So why should anyone look at this list and the meaning behind the names? Of course the list of names represents both male and female genders, although most names from other nationalities are male. Must be too much trouble to invoke the name of a female not of Euro descent.
Well, first of all, the word itself, “Hurricane” is of Native American, possible Carib or Mayan origin. So where are the distinctive Native American names? Maybe they just aren’t aware of any names beyond Tecumsch, Geronimo, Pocahontas, Sitting Bull, or Crazy Horse. Furthermore, where are the African-American or Muslim names, female or male?
The folks at the National Hurricane Center don’t like to change their list of hurricane names. In fact, they are prepared six years in advance and are rotated every so often. I wonder if they can be convinced to change their perspective and include the names of all nationalities and races. Or are they reserving the names of the most powerful storms on earth for themselves?
If you would like to learn more about the history of naming or how hurricanes are formed, jog on over to Hurricane or Hurricanes For interesting articles.
Ramsey said,
July 15, 2008 at 6:52 pm
I just wanted to say that this is a very helpful website to look at for the list of hurricane names for 2008. I think that this is a very helpful website for people interested about hurricanes!