# What if we run out of hurricane names?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-we-run-out-of-hurricane-names/322469>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [September 20, 2005, 1:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-we-run-out-of-hurricane-names/322469 "2005-09-20T01:33:53Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 6\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![The\_Controvert](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/dec6dc/32.png) [@The\_Controvert](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Controvert)\
**Post date:** [September 20, 2005, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-we-run-out-of-hurricane-names/322469/21 "2005-09-20T15:25:14Z")

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> [@Diceman](#):
>
> Q, U, X, Y, and Z and skipped because there aren’t too many names that begin with those letters.
> 
> (Lessee: Quentin and Quincy are all I can think of for Q. Ursula is the only name I can think of for U, and Xavier is the only X. I can’t think of any common names beginning with Y, and Z is pretty much restricted to Zachary and Zebediah (sp?) and varients like Zack and Zeb.)

In one of the links above, they alternate between two names. So, they’d be all set with Quentin/Quincy, Ursula/Ulysses, Xena/Xavier, Yolanda/York, Zelda/Zeke.

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**Author:** ![AWB](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/bb73d2/32.png) [@AWB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AWB)\
**Post date:** [September 20, 2005, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-we-run-out-of-hurricane-names/322469/22 "2005-09-20T16:16:31Z")

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2006’s list have both my name and my wife’s on it. Hope that’s not a bad omen.

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**Author:** ![awldune](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c77e96/32.png) [@awldune](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/awldune)\
**Post date:** [September 20, 2005, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-we-run-out-of-hurricane-names/322469/23 "2005-09-20T17:00:44Z")

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A question that comes to mind is, what happens if theoretical Hurricane Alpha causes significant damage?

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**Author:** ![av8rmike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/edb3f5/32.png) [@av8rmike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/av8rmike)\
**Post date:** [September 20, 2005, 6:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-we-run-out-of-hurricane-names/322469/24 "2005-09-20T18:01:53Z")

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> [@awldune](#):
>
> A question that comes to mind is, what happens if theoretical Hurricane Alpha causes significant damage?

Hebrew Letters? Hurricane Aleph, anyone?

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**Author:** ![An\_Arky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/87869e/32.png) [@An\_Arky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/An_Arky)\
**Post date:** [September 21, 2005, 12:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-we-run-out-of-hurricane-names/322469/25 "2005-09-21T00:28:50Z")

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> [@awldune](#):
>
> A question that comes to mind is, what happens if theoretical Hurricane Alpha causes significant damage?

Then the rest of them are named Prince Michael. Or George.

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**Author:** ![Diceman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/22d042/32.png) [@Diceman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diceman)\
**Post date:** [September 21, 2005, 3:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-we-run-out-of-hurricane-names/322469/26 "2005-09-21T03:35:18Z")

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So they really did start out naming the storms after guys’ wives and girlfriends? (In the US at least). Heh. I don’t suppose that many of these women appreciated being the namesake of a huge, violent, windy, killer storm.

BTW, my name was retired a while ago. And you’d better believe that my family teased me with news articles describing the horrors I’d inflicted 😉

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