The World Meterological Organization yesterday retired Ike, Gustav, Paloma, and Alma as hurricane names, following the deaths and damage they caused in 2008.

Eastern North Pacific and Atlantic hurricane names are held on a six-year rotation, so these soubriquets would have emerged again in 2014, had they not been taken off the list. Instead, we’ll see hurricanes Gonzalo, Isaias, Paulette and Amanda.

The complete list of hurricane names shows that we can expect hurricanes Claudette, Kevin, Olaf and Mindy in 2009, among others. While tropical cyclones in the Indian Ocean and South China Sea have names quite unfamiliar to Western ears. “The main purpose of naming a tropical cyclone or hurricane is basically for people easily to understand and remember it in a region,” the WMO explains.

The National Hurricane Center, part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, has a comprehensive list of retired hurricane names, beginning with Carol and Hazel in 1954.

Image: Hurricane Ike in 2008 / NASA / JPL