All tropical low-pressure systems are called "tropical cyclones" regardless of where they form around the world. Names differ based on these low-pressure systems' organization and strength.

A strong tropical cyclone is called a hurricane around North America and Hawaii, a typhoon in the western Pacific, and just a cyclone in all other ocean basins.

Each ocean basin uses its own reserve of names to track and warn tropical cyclones. The U.N.'s World Meteorological Organization is responsible for standardizing these lists of names around the world. Different agencies are tasked with tracking storms in their area of responsibility.

The U.S. National Hurricane Center is responsible for the tropical Atlantic Ocean, the eastern Pacific, and the central Pacific around Hawaii.

The Japan Meteorological Agency tracks storms in the northwestern Pacific basin. Storms in the southern Pacific fall under the responsibility of several agencies, including Australia's Bureau of Meteorology, New Zealand's MetService, Fiji's Met. Service, Papua New Guinea's National Weather Service, and Indonesia's BMKG. The Philippines' PAGASA unofficially tracks and names storms that approach the country.

Storms in the north Indian Ocean fall under the responsibility of India's Meteorological Department, while MeteoFrance Reunion handles storms in the south Indian Ocean.

Tropical cyclones are rare in the southern Atlantic Ocean. Unofficially, Brazil's CPTEC tracks storms off the eastern coast of South America.

The United States Navy's Joint Typhoon Warning Center issues its own forecasts on tropical cyclones around the world.

Tropical cyclones in the Atlantic basin are named once they strengthen into a tropical or subtropical storm. Today's practice of using six lists of 21 names began with the 1979 hurricane season.

Each hurricane season is assigned a list of 21 names that alternate between masculine and feminine, contributed by the predominantly English-, Spanish-, and French-speaking cultures of the countries bordering the Atlantic.

The letters Q, U, X, Y, and Z are omitted from the Atlantic names for lack of sufficient names to replace them if a storm warrants retirement.

The World Meteorological Organization retires the name of a hurricane that causes extensive loss of life or significant damage. This practice considers survivors and communities that were affected by terrible storms. For instance, the practice spares folks the anguish of hearing another "Hurricane Katrina" might make landfall.

Countries can formally petition the WMO at the end of each season with names they believe deserve retirement. The organization votes on each submission and announces the results in the late winter or early spring.

Forecasters have retired 96 names since the advent of routine storm naming in 1953. The most retirements in a single year was 5 during the historic 2005 hurricane season. The letter with the most retirements is 'I,' with 13 names never to be used again. Given its place in the alphabet, 'I' storms tend to form during the peak of hurricane season.

Tropical cyclones were unnamed through much of history—usually named after the fact and only for the regions they struck (such as the "Long Island Express" Hurricane of 1938).

Forecasters in the U.S. began regularly naming storms in 1953. These storms were only assigned feminine names until forecasters developed the current naming standard in 1979.

Below are the six original lists of names implemented with the 1979 hurricane season. Only 74 of the following 126 names remained in use at the start of the 2024 Atlantic hurricane season. The 52 retired names are in red.