Some Atlantic Basin hurricane and tropical storm names will never be used again.

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, Maria 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.

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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 Maria to describe a future weak, open-ocean tropical storm.

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How Many Are Retired?

Since the naming of Atlantic tropical cyclones ditched the phonetic alphabet in 1953, 99 Atlantic tropical cyclone names have been retired, including 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 a name retired, most recently in 2014. 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.

(MORE: Most Intense Atlantic Hurricanes)

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 $15.1-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.