I gotta ask, at the risk of showing my ignorance.
Is hurricane Ike, presently beating the shit out of poor Corpus Cristi, named for Dwight D. Eisenhower, an american president?
I’m familiar with the method for naming these storms, and they’re not usually named after famous people, but there aren’t that many Ikes, are there? It’s a nickname, AFAIK.
Peace,
mangeorge
The names are chosen from a list in alphabetical order. The list recycles every few years, and they replace names of infamous storms so they aren’t used again.
AFAIK the names are not chosen in honor of any person.
Ike is a nickname for Isaac. You might not know many Jews, but it seems pretty common around some parts.
There’s also Ike Turner, Ike Austin, Isaiah “Ikey” Owens, etc.
I’ve known quite a few Isaacs, but never heard one called Ike. A good friend in the navy while stationed in New York was a Jew, and we went to visit his weird family many times. He introduced me to lox and bagels in a wonderful deli. And hot pastrami (wet) sandwiches. Maybe they didn’t use such informal names around company.
He and I and an Italian friend of ours who also had family there (Mulberry Street) hung around together a lot.
That, the nickname for Isaak, does fit with tradition, though. Why didn’t they name it Isaak, I wonder.
Oh, yeah! Ike Turner. I totally forgot. The others I’m not familiar with.
Hurrican Isaac (or Tropical Storm Isaac, as the case may be) has been used before and is scheduled to be used again in 2012.
And until not that many years ago, all hurricane names were feminine. When that decision was made there was probably a lot of thought put into it. Then, the powers that be caved into political correctness and gave masculine names an equal chance. Ike should have been Irene, Imelda, or IWishMyNameWasMamie (Eisenhower).
Also Ike Broflovski.
No. If they had been named after men, they would have been himicanes
On a factual note, the list goes boy girl boy girl this year, and girl boy girl boy next year (and every second year).
In the 1890s, meterologist Isaac Cline argued against building a seawall for Galveston, saying that the idea of a hurricane damaging Galveston was “an absurd delusion.” Supposedly, some bitterly referred to the 1900 Storm as “Isaac’s storm” after it had destroyed the city.
I’m sure that this is pure coincidence and that no one at the National Hurricane Center has the poor taste to intentionally put Ike Cline’s name into the rotation.
Hurricaine Ike has as much to do with Eisenhower as Hurricaine Hanna had to do with Hannah Montana.
And here I was sure it was our own Ukulele Ike . 
i thought that it was ironic that the list for 2000 had isaac on the list. nothing like poking the history bear.
it looks like the history bear has taken the bait with ike on this year’s list.
the lists use all versions of name, frances and fran have been used and retired. debbie and debra have been used and retired.
now ike will be retired, isaac is still up for 2012. this year will have quite a few retired names. fay will be replaced with another female name beginning with f and ike will be replaced with another male name beginning with i.
Actually his full name was Ike & Tina Turner. 
It took you this long to come up with that? 
Is retirement of a name a somewhat arbitrary decision, or are there specific rules about when to do it? Who controls the list and makes the decisions anyway?
Is there something deeper (more emotional?) about this naming than I’m aware of?
What I mean is, do people take the choosing od the name seriously?
If “John” were next in rotation would the democrats or the republicans cry foul?
I do remember the “women’s names only” times, and the fuss oner that.
Not really. I mean, they’re set so far in advance. Now the hullubuloo is about using anglican/non-anglican names.
That’s what I mean. Why the hullubuloo (trusting your spelling there ;))? Who cares?