List of retired Atlantic hurricane names

During the latter stages of World War II, forecasters with the United States Armed Forces began informally naming tropical cyclones over the Pacific Ocean after their wives and sweethearts. In 1945, after the practice had become popular among forecasters who found that it reduced confusion during map discussions, the US military formalized the scheme and started to publicly assign female names to tropical cyclones in the Northern Hemisphere and male names to those in the Southern Hemisphere. At the time, attempts were made to persuade the United States Weather Bureau (USWB) to start using female names for Atlantic hurricanes, but the bureau wanted to be seen as a serious enterprise and felt that it was "not appropriate" to name tropical cyclones while warning the United States public. As a result, the USAF started to use the Joint Army/Navy Phonetic Alphabet to name significant tropical cyclones in the North Atlantic Ocean. During the active but mild 1953 Atlantic hurricane season, the names were readily used in the press with few objections recorded; as a result, the same names were reused during the next year with only one change: Gilda for Gail. Over the next six years, a new list of names was developed ahead of each season; in 1960, forecasters developed four alphabetical sets and repeated them every four years. These new sets followed the example of the typhoon names and excluded names beginning with the letters Q, U, X, Y, and Z, and keeping them to female names only. Ahead of the 1971 Atlantic hurricane season, 10 lists of hurricane names were inaugurated, by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. In 1977, it was decided that the World Meteorological Organization's Hurricane Committee (WMO) would control the names used, who subsequently decided that six lists of names would be used in the Atlantic Ocean from 1979 onwards, with male names included. Formerly, if a season's primary list of names were fully used, subsequent storms would be assigned names based on the letters of the Greek alphabet. According to the WMO's initial policy established in 2006, the Greek letter named storms could never be retired "lest an irreplaceable chunk be taken out of the alphabet." Therefore, devastating 2020 hurricanes Eta and Iota would have been retired as "Eta 2020" and "Iota 2020" respectively, but the letter names themselves would remain available for use whenever Greek alphabet letter names were needed again in subsequent years. However, this plan was never implemented, as the names Eta and Iota were both formally retired without the year descriptor by the WMO in 2021. The organization also abandoned the Greek alphabet auxiliary list in favor of a new auxiliary naming list. ==Retired names by decade==

1950s inundates the Edgewood Yacht Club in Rhode Island. Between 1954 and 1959, eight names were deemed significant enough to be retired for 10 years due to their impact before being permanently retired after 1969. There were no names retired for the 1956, 1958, and 1959 seasons. Collectively, these storms resulted in at least fatalities and over in damage. The deadliest hurricane was Hurricane Hazel, which killed at least 1,191 people, while the costliest was Hurricane Diane, which caused in damage. 1960s In 1960, four rotating lists of names were developed to avoid creating new lists each year, while the practice of retiring any particularly damaging storm names for 10 years continued, with 11 names deemed significant enough to be retired during the decade. At the 1969 Hurricane Warning Conference, the National Hurricane Center requested that Carol, Edna, Hazel, and Inez be permanently retired due to their importance to the research community. This request was subsequently accepted and led to today's practice of retiring names of significant tropical cyclones permanently. In addition, Hurricane Allen was the most intense tropical cyclone during the decade by wind speed, with maximum 1–minute sustained winds of 190 mph (305 km/h). This remains the highest sustained wind speed of any Atlantic hurricane on record. There were no names retired for 1981, 1982, 1984, 1986, and 1987 seasons, which was the most of any decade since the introduction of the practice of retiring hurricane names. 1990s in Miami. During the 1990s, the Atlantic Ocean moved into its active era, which led to more tropical cyclones forming during the hurricane seasons. The decade featured Hurricane Andrew, which at the time was the costliest hurricane on record, and also Hurricane Mitch, which is considered to be the deadliest tropical cyclone to have its name retired, killing over 11,000 people in Central America. A total of 15 names were retired in this decade, seven during the 1995 and 1996 seasons. Cumulatively, the 15 systems caused over in damage while over people lost their lives. No names were retired for the 1993, 1994, and 1997 seasons. 2000s making landfall in Louisiana on August 29, 2005. After the Atlantic basin had moved into the warm phase of the Atlantic multidecadal oscillation during the mid-1990s, the 2000s marked the most prolific decade in terms of the number of retired storms, with 24 names warranting removal. The decade featured one of the costliest tropical cyclones on record, Hurricane Katrina, which inflicted roughly in damage across the Gulf Coast of the United States. Hurricane Jeanne was the deadliest storm during the decade and was responsible for over 3,000 deaths, when it impacted Haiti and other parts of the Caribbean as a tropical storm and minimal hurricane. During October 2005, Hurricane Wilma became the most intense tropical cyclone in the Atlantic basin on record, with a central pressure of . Altogether, 16 tropical cyclone names were retired during the 2010s. Collectively, these systems killed at least 4779 people and caused at least worth of damage. Among them, Hurricane Maria was the most intense tropical cyclone by pressure, with a minimum value of 908 hPa (26.81 inHg), as well as the deadliest, with 3,057 fatalities directly or indirectly caused by Maria. Hurricane Dorian was the most intense in terms of wind speed, with maximum sustained winds of 185 mph (295 km/h). Hurricane Harvey was the decade's costliest system, as well as the costliest overall, tied with 2005's Katrina. There were no names retired for the 2014 season. 2020s at its record peak intensity just prior to landfall in Jamaica on October 28, 2025 Ten tropical cyclone names have been retired so far in the 2020s. Hurricane Laura was the costliest hurricane of the 2020 season, causing over $23 billion in damages, much of which occurred along the southwestern Louisiana coast as a result of its storm surge. Hurricanes Eta and Iota both made landfall in Nicaragua, with Iota doing so with maximum sustained winds near . Each brought torrential rain and then flooding to much of Central America. Hurricane Ida made landfall in southeastern Louisiana with sustained winds of ; the costliest hurricane of the 2021 season, Ida caused $75 billion damage and directly caused 55 deaths from the southeastern United States to New England. Hurricane Fiona caused major devastation to the islands in the Caribbean Sea and was the most intense storm by barometric pressure to strike Atlantic Canada. Hurricane Ian was the third-costliest tropical cyclone on record, only behind hurricanes Katrina and Harvey in 2005 and 2017, respectively. Ian made landfall in western Florida and devastated the state before losing hurricane strength. Thereafter, Ian entered the Atlantic Ocean, intensifying to Category 1 strength, and hit the coast of South Carolina. Hurricane Beryl was the earliest Category 5 hurricane in the Atlantic on record, beating the record set by Emily in 2005 by more than two weeks, and proceeded to devastate the island of Grenada, before later hitting the state of Texas and causing significant damage. After making landfall in the Big Bend Region of Florida, Hurricane Helene caused catastrophic flooding and killed hundreds in the southeastern United States. Hurricane Milton formed 10 days later and within 48 hours, it became the most intense hurricane in the Gulf of Mexico for the 2024 season, with its central pressure tying for fifth place with Rita of 2005. After weakening, Milton struck Florida, causing a prolific tornado outbreak in the state that was aided by a dip of the jet stream, as well as causing major damage across the central part of the state. Hurricane Melissa became the strongest Atlantic hurricane on record by wind speed tied with Allen of 1980, before making a catastrophic landfall in Jamaica as one of the most intense landfalls in the Atlantic. There were no names retired for the 2023 season. ==Retired names by letter==