This year’s storm names include some changes

2021 hurricane names: From Ana to Wanda, is yours on the list?

Grace Pateras

Houma Courier-Thibodaux Daily Comet USA TODAY NETWORK

Is your name on the list? Not if you're named after the Greek alphabet.

The World Meteorological Organization, which is in charge of hurricane names worldwide, announced that the Greek alphabet will no longer be used when a hurricane season runs out of names, like it did in 2020.

Instead, once the official list of hurricane names has been exhausted, another list of names will be used.

Hurricane season officially starts June 1, though the National Hurricane Center started issuing regular storm forecasts for the Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico on May 15 this year due to six consecutive years of early storms.

From Ana to Wanda, these are the names of the 2021 hurricane season.

2021 hurricane names

Six lists of predetermined names are used on rotation for identifying Atlantic hurricanes each season. The lists are maintained and updated by an international committee of the World Meteorological Organization.

Names alternate between female and male names alphabetically and are not named after any particular person.

There are no names that begin with Q, U, X, Y or Z because of the lack of usable names that begin with those letters.

This season, hurricanes will be named the following: 1 Ana 12 Larry 2 Bill 13 Mindy 3 Claudette 14 Nicholas 4 Danny 15 Odette 5 Elsa 16 Peter 6 Fred 17 Rose 7 Grace 18 Sam 8 Henri 19 Teresa 9 Ida 20 Victor 10 Julian 21 Wanda 11 Kate Hurricane names on standby

Goodbye Zeta, and hello Sophie.

If this year is anything like last season, there could be more storms than the list of 21 names.

Unlike last season, any additional storms will not use the Greek alphabet.

This is because the use of Greek alphabet names "creates a distraction from the communication of hazard and storm warnings and is potentially confusing," the WMO said in a statement.

In 2020, storm names included Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Epsilon, Zeta, Eta, Theta and Iota.

In the case of a highly active hurricane season, the following names will be assigned: 1 Adria 12 Lucio 2 Braylen 13 Makayla 3 Caridad 14 Nolan 4 Deshawn 15 Orlanda 5 Emery 16 Pax 6 Foster 17 Ronin 7 Gemma 18 Sophie 8 Heath 19 Tayshaun 9 Isla 20 Viviana 10 Jacobus 21 Will 11 Kenzie

Retired hurricane names

Bummed your name isn't on the list? There could be a reason for that.

If a storm is so deadly or costly to the impacted area, using it to name a future storm would be inappropriate and insensitive. In that case, a committee will vote to strike it from the official recurring list and select another name to replace it, according to the organization.

Retired names include Katrina (2005), Sandy (2012), and Michael (2018).

Earlier this year, the organization also retired Dorian (2019), and Laura (2020), Eta (2020), and Iota (2020).

Since 1954, 93 names have been retired and replaced.

Grace Pateras is a Digital Producer for the USA TODAY Network. Follow her on Twitter at @gracepateras.