The list of names that will be used for tropical storms and hurricanes that form during the 2026 Atlantic hurricane season includes some simple ones like Arthur, Fay, and Kyle.
But it also marks the return of Isaias — a storm name that was used during the 2020 hurricane season and proved to be tough to pronounce.
Isaias is supposed to be pronounced ees-ah-EE-ahs, but many TV and radio newscasters butchered it. (The most common mispronunciations included eye-ZAY-us and ee-SAY-us.)
On the serious side, Isaias turned out to be a category 1 hurricane when it made landfall in North Carolina in August 2020 before heading up the I-95 corridor. The storm’s remnants drifted into New Jersey, spawning two tornadoes, uprooting scores of trees, and generating breaking waves as high as 10 to 12 feet along the Jersey Shore.
Across New Jersey, more than 1.4 million homes and businesses lost power, and some restorations took up to a week after the storm’s remnants barreled through.
How to say the storm names
Here’s the official list of tropical storm and hurricane names that will be used this season by the National Hurricane Center, along with the correct pronunciations.
- Arthur — AR-thur
- Bertha —BUR-thuh
- Cristobal — krees-TOH-bahl
- Dolly —DAH-lee
- Edouard — eh-DWARD
- Fay —fay
- Gonzalo — gohn-SAH-loh
- Hanna —HAN-uh
- Isaias — ees-ah-EE-ahs
- Josephine —JOH-seh-feen
- Kyle —KY-ull
- Leah —LEE-ah
- Marco —MAR-koe
- Nana —NA-na
- Omar —OH-mar
- Paulette —pawl-LET
- Rene —re-NAY
- Sally —SAL-ee
- Teddy —TEHD-ee
- Vicky —VIH-kee
- Wilfred —WILL-fred
The group that compiles the storm names, the World Meteorological Organization, creates lists of 21 names, covering six hurricane seasons.
After six years, the lists get recycled, so most of the names will be used again. However, the organization often removes the names of storms that result in high numbers of fatalities or cause extremely costly damage.
Those names are pulled out of the rotation and replaced with new ones starting with the same letter.