The idea to give storms women's first names, conceived by Americans, in the 1941 novel, `Storm'. In 1950, the National Weather Service started using the phonetic alphabet (Alpha, Beta, Charlie, Delta etc.) but in 1953 returned to women's names in alphabetical order.

To avoid sexism, the weather service started alternating men's and women's names in 1979. The names, reflecting various nationalities and ethnicities, are selected by the World Meteorological Organisation and are used in six-year shifts. Deadly storms are retired.

Once a storm reaches tropical storm status, it gets a name for the rest of its life. The names of storms that killed people or caused great damage are retired permanently.

Andrew was retired in 1992, the 34th name to be deleted. Georges and Mitch have also been retired, to be replaced with the names Gaston and Matthew.

Here are the hurricane names to be used through the year 2007 in the Atlantic basin:

2003 Ana, Bill, Claudette, Danny, Erika, Fabian, Grace, Henri, Isabel, Juan, Kate, Larry, Mindy, Nicholas, Odette, Peter, Rose,

Sam, Teresa, Victor, Wanda.

2004 Alex, Bonnie, Charley, Danielle, Earl, Frances, Gaston, Hermine, Ivan, Jeanne, Karl, Lisa, Matthew, Nicole, Otto, Paula,

Richard, Shary, Tomas, Virginie, Walter.

2005 Arlene, Bret, Cindy, Dennis, Emily, Franklin, Gert, Harvey, Irene, Jose, Katrina, Lee, Maria, Nate, Ophelia, Philippe, Rita,

Stan, Tammy, Vince, Wilma.

2006 Alberto, Beryl, Chris, Debby, Ernesto, Florence, Gordon, Helene, Isaac, Joyce, Kirk, Leslie, Michael, Nadine, Oscar, Patty,

Rafael, Sandy, Tony, Valerie, William.

2007 Andrea, Barry, Chantal, Dean, Erin, Felix, Gabrielle, Humberto, Ingrid, Jerry, Karen, Lorenzo, Melissa, Noel, Olga, Pablo, Rebekah, Sebastien, Tanya, Van, Wendy..