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Retired Hurricane Names: The 100 Most Notorious Atlantic Storms Since 1954

They're the worst storms the Atlantic Basin has generated since the mid-20th century. This "Hall of Infamy" is a list of names no longer used for current or future storms after one version was so deadly and destructive.

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HURRICANE MELISSA (2025)
Melissa's strongest maximum sustained winds were found to have reached 190 mph, tying 1980's Hurricane Allen for the strongest sustained winds on record for any Atlantic Basin hurricane. Hours later, it tied 2019's Dorian and the 1935 Labor Day hurricane for strongest Atlantic Basin landfall by wind speed when it slammed into Jamaica with 185 mph maximum sustained winds. Storm surge inundation from 7 to 11 feet above normally dry ground swamped coastal areas of southwest Jamaica. Melissa later made a Category 3 landfall in eastern Cuba, then a Category 2 landfall in the southeast Bahamas. At least 95 were killed, 45 of which were in Jamaica and another 43 in Haiti. (Photo: RICARDO MAKYN/AFP via Getty Images)

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HURRICANE MELISSA (2025)
Melissa's strongest maximum sustained winds were found to have reached 190 mph, tying 1980's Hurricane Allen for the strongest sustained winds on record for any Atlantic Basin hurricane. Hours later, it tied 2019's Dorian and the 1935 Labor Day hurricane for strongest Atlantic Basin landfall by wind speed when it slammed into Jamaica with 185 mph maximum sustained winds. Storm surge inundation from 7 to 11 feet above normally dry ground swamped coastal areas of southwest Jamaica. Melissa later made a Category 3 landfall in eastern Cuba, then a Category 2 landfall in the southeast Bahamas. At least 95 were killed, 45 of which were in Jamaica and another 43 in Haiti. (Photo: RICARDO MAKYN/AFP via Getty Images)

Some Atlantic Basin hurricane and tropical storm names will never be used for future storms.

Just as no New York Yankee will ever again wear No. 3 (Babe Ruth), nor will a Los Angeles Laker ever claim No. 32 (Magic Johnson), no future Atlantic hurricane will ever be named Harvey, Irma, Katrina, Melissa or Sandy.

Unlike an athlete's number, however, there is no celebration when an Atlantic name is retired from future use. It's not a Hall of Fame, but rather a Hall of Infamy.

LOS ANGELES, CALIF. - MAR. 7, 2023. The retired jersey of ormer Los Angeles Lakers Pau Gasol is revealed during a halftime ceremony during the game against the Memphis Grizzlies in an NBA game at Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles on Tuesday, Mar. 7, 2023. (Luis Sinco / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images) — LOS ANGELES, CALIF. - MAR. 7, 2023. The retired jersey of ormer Los Angeles Lakers Pau Gasol is revealed during a halftime ceremony during the game against the Memphis Grizzlies in an NBA game at Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles on Tuesday, Mar. 7, 2023.
(Luis Sinco / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)

Why Retire Names?

Contrary to popular opinion, a committee of the World Meteorological Organization – not the U.S. National Hurricane Center – is responsible for the tropical cyclone name lists.

Atlantic hurricane and tropical storm name lists repeat every six years, unless a name is so destructive and/or deadly that the committee votes to retire that name from future use.

This avoids the possible use of, say, Katrina, Sandy or Melissa to describe a future weak, open-ocean tropical storm.

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The 2026 Atlantic hurricane season names list will repeat in 2032, unless one or more of those is retired following the season.

How Many Are Retired?

Since the naming of Atlantic tropical cyclones ditched the phonetic alphabet in 1953, 100 Atlantic tropical cyclone names have been retired, including 2025's Melissa, 2024's Beryl, Helene and Milton, 2022's Ian and Fiona and 2021's Ida. You can scroll through the list in the slideshow atop this article.

Only 20 seasons have not had an Atlantic name retired, most recently in 2023. On the other side of the spectrum, 28 seasons have had multiple names removed from future use, led by the record-smashing 2005 hurricane season's five retirees.

The I's Have It

Names beginning with the letter "I" lead the retirees with 13, followed by 10 "F" storms, then nine "C" storms. Eleven of those "I" storms have earned retirement just since 2001, including a four-year streak from 2001 through 2004 (Iris, Isidore, Isabel and Ivan, respectively).

Wilma in 2005 has been the deepest-in-the-alphabet retiree until 2020, when Eta and Iota were ceremoniously retired by the WMO, along with any future use of the Greek alphabet for hurricane names once a season's list runs out.

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The number of retired Atlantic hurricane names by their starting letter from 1954 through 2025. Two hurricanes with Greek letter names were also retired in 2020, though Greek letter names are no longer used in supplemental name lists.
(Data: NOAA/NHC)

Not All Were Hurricanes

You'll instantly recognize some names in the slideshow atop this article. Others, not so much.

The retired Atlantic storms weren't all necessarily Category 3, 4 or 5 hurricanes. Some of them were retired due to their deadly flooding in the Caribbean, Mexico, Central America or the United States.

That included 2017's Nate, 2013's Ingrid in Mexico, 1996's Hortense in Puerto Rico and 1972's Agnes in the eastern U.S.

Only two Atlantic retirees never attained hurricane status: 2015's Tropical Storm Erika and 2001's Tropical Storm Allison. Damage from Erika's epic flooding may have set Dominica's progress back 20 years, according to the country's prime minister in late-summer 2015.

Allison was a $15.5-billion storm and one of the worst floods of record in Houston until 2017's Harvey.

Jonathan Erdman is a senior meteorologist at weather.com and has been covering national and international weather since 1996. Extreme and bizarre weather are his favorite topics. Reach out to him on Bluesky, X (formerly Twitter) and Facebook.