Atlantic hurricane name lists normally repeat every six years.
The World Meteorological Organization’s Regional Association IV Hurricane Committee maintains six rotating Atlantic lists. One list is assigned to each season, so the same list is scheduled to return six years later. For example, the 2026 list is scheduled for reuse in 2032.
The lists contain 21 names, generally alternating male and female names, and omit several letters such as Q, U, X, Y, and Z because suitable names are harder to select. Names are assigned to qualifying tropical storms as they form, not only to systems that eventually become hurricanes.
The cycle is not absolute. If a storm is exceptionally deadly or destructive, the WMO committee can retire its name and replace it with another before the list returns. Also, an unusually active season can exhaust the regular list and require a supplemental naming list. Those exceptions explain why a particular name may not reappear exactly six years later, even though the normal rotation is six years.