What's in a name? Hurricane season starts Sunday and here are the storm names for 2026

Richard Tribou, Orlando Sentinel on May 25, 2026

By clicking submit, I authorize Arcamax and its affiliates to: (1) use, sell, and share my information for marketing purposes, including cross-context behavioral advertising, as described in our Privacy Policy , (2) add to information that I provide with other information like interests inferred from web page views, or data lawfully obtained from data brokers, such as past purchase or location data, or publicly available data, (3) contact me or enable others to contact me by email or other means with offers for different types of goods and services, and (4) retain my information while I am engaging with marketing messages that I receive and for a reasonable amount of time thereafter. I understand I can opt out at any time through an email that I receive, or by clicking here

ORLANDO, Fla. — There are 26 letters in the alphabet but only 21 are set aside each year for potential tropical storm and hurricane names in areas tracked by the National Hurricane Center.

The names for the 2026 Atlantic hurricane season are Arthur, Bertha, Cristobal, Dolly, Edouard, Fay, Gonzalo, Hanna, Isaias, Josephine, Kyle, Leah, Marco, Nana, Omar, Paulette, Rene, Sally, Teddy, Vicky and Wilfred.

There are no names for Q, U, X, Y and Z, and each of the 21 names alternate from female to male. This year starts with a male name and next year will begin with a female name.

If some of this year’s names seem familiar, it’s because each year’s names are decided six years out by an international committee of the World Meteorological Organization. If a storm name isn’t retired after a season it recycles.

This year, for instance, the WMO Hurricane Committee retired Melissa from its Atlantic basin name list “because of the death and destruction it caused in the Caribbean in October 2025,” according to a WMO press release. It was replaced by Molly — but that name won’t be used until 2031.

So a good chunk of the storm names used in 2020 are getting reused this year. Arthur, for instance, had been used in 2020, 2014, 2008, 2002, 1996, 1990 and 1984.

The only new name in 2026 is Leah, which replaced Laura, a deadly and destructive Category 4 hurricane that struck Louisiana in 2020.

If there are more than 21 named storms, WMO initiated a supplemental list first available in 2021 for new storm names. They are Adria, Braylen, Caridad, Deshawn, Emery, Foster, Gemma, Heath, Isla, Jacobus, Kenzie, Lucio, Makayla, Nolan, Orlanda, Pax, Ronin, Sophie, Tayshaun, Viviana and Will.

Before 2021, if there were more than 21 named storms in a year it would take on a letter from the Greek alphabet for its name: Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta, Epsilon and so forth, although the WMO also retired the storm names for Eta and Iota after their destructive strikes on Central America.

Only twice has NHC utilized the spillover list. First in 2005 when it used six letters of the Greek alphabet, and again in 2020 when it required nine letters including Zeta, Eta, Theta and Iota. That was deemed potentially confusing and dangerous and thus begat the new augmented naming system.

The NHC began naming storms in 1963.

In addition to last year’s Melissa and 2020’s Laura, Eta and Iota, other retired storm names over the last decade are 2024’s Beryl, Helene and Milton, 2022’s Fiona and Ian; 2021’s Ida; 2019’s Dorian, 2018’s Florence and Michael; 2017’s Harvey, Irma, Maria and Nate; 2016’s Matthew; and Otto and 2015’s Erika and Joaquin.

Other storms that have struck Florida whose names were retired include 2005’s Dennis, Katrina and Wilma; 2004’s Charley, Frances, Ivan and Jeanne; 1995’s Opal; and 1992’s Andrew.

------------