How Do Tropical Storms/Hurricanes Get Their Names?

You all probably have heard or experienced for yourselves how stressful it can be to pick names for children or even pets, right? Well, have you ever found your self wondering how tropical storms/hurricanes receive their names? How about who gets to name them? I have, so I did a little digging to find out and today will play "science guy" a bit and share what I learned.

We all know that the country, specially New Orleans continues to recover from the devastation that Hurricane Katrina brought down. At the same time we have been very fortunate that a storm from time to time ends up turning back to the ocean from which it came, sparing a coastal city or state, such as Phillippe. Everyone usually thinks of Florida first when it comes to tropical storms or hurricanes, but I'll bet that you can recall that "Rita" and her powerful winds, rains and waves turned Houston as well as Galveston into empty shells as people fled to safety because of enough advance warning.

There are many others that I will admit I had forgotten about, such as Camille, Elena and Hortense (someone must have lost a bet with that name), but Andrew certainly remains fresh in my mind for the destruction he caused.

So, as we listen to all the coverage that these potentially deadly storms gets from all the media at our disposal that includes reporters wrapped up in rain slickers about to blown away by the winds, desperately hanging on to something so that they may deliver the story while risking their lives, I find myself wondering where do the names for these storms come from, and who names them?