In 1953 , the National Weather Service picked up on the habit of Naval meteorologists of naming the storms after women . Ships were always referred to as female , and were often given women ' s names . In 1979 , male names were inserted to alternate with the female names .
There are actually six lists of names in use for storms in the Atlantic . These lists rotate , one each year ; the list of this year ' s names will not be reused for six years . The names get recycled each