The Atlantic hurricane naming list began including male names in 1979. That year marked the first Atlantic season in which the official list contained both male and female names, following a decision by the World Meteorological Organization to make the system more representative of the languages and cultures around the Atlantic basin.
Before 1979, Atlantic tropical cyclones had been assigned female names since 1953. The earlier practice replaced military phonetic-alphabet names with women’s names, and those names remained the standard for more than two decades. In 1977, NOAA transferred responsibility for selecting Atlantic names to a regional WMO committee, which prepared mixed lists for use beginning in 1979.
The first mixed-list season included names such as Bob, David, Frederic, and Henri alongside Ana and Claudette. The change did not mean every storm alternated between male and female names in real time; instead, the annual alphabetical list itself contained both. The six rotating lists used today continue that basic system, with particularly destructive storm names retired and replaced.