Up and Coming Weekly is a weekly publication in Fayetteville, NC and Fort Bragg, NC area offering local news, views, arts, entertainment and community event and business information.
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THIS WEEK WITH MARGARET The Name Game by MARGARET DICKSON names themselves are selected by regional committees of the World My chum since childhood, exercise buddy, travel companion and Meteorological Organization, which has a six-year list of storm names that proofreader extraordinaire long since threatened to withhold her excellent will be repeated indefinitely. The only exceptions are names of dreadful editing services if I wrote yet another Up & Coming Weekly column on storms that no one wants to hear again — think Hazel, Andrew, Fran, either of these topics: Floyd and Katrina and you get the picture. Originally, like ship names, • Tattoos, why people get them and whether they regret their choice to hurricane names were all feminine, but in 1979 men's names were also get inked. adopted, alternating with the women. • The names parents hang on their beloved babies. So who is on tap for 2013? Because I value her friendship, not to mention her focused editing Andrea, Barry, and Chantal are already history, and we have Dorian, skills, I have pretty much sworn off these topics although I remain Erin, Fernand, Gabrielle, Humberto, Ingrid, Jerry, Karen, Lorenzo, fascinated by them myself. So imagine my surprise when, as we sat on Melissa, Nestor, Olga, Pablo, our exercise mats at 6:30 one Rebekah, Sebastian, Tanya, recent morning, she suggested Van and Wendy to look a column on names. forward to. Hurricane names, that is. And how do these names As I write this, Tropical stack up with what parents are Storm Chantal has just fizzled blessing their precious jewels out in the Caribbean, thank with in 2013? goodness, even though early Parents and hurricane projections had the storm namers apparently have very posing a threat to the eastern different tastes. None of the seaboard of the United States. 2013 hurricane names are Chantal? anywhere near the parental I do not know anyone top ten, or even the parental named Chantal, so I checked top 100. Some never even it out with the U.S. Social made the top 1,000 list. Security Administration, Since 2000, only four of this which maintains a handy and year's hurricane names — addictive website detailing Erin, Gabrielle, Melissa and the most popular baby names Sebastian — have made the for boys and girls born in the parents' top 100. Several United States since the late others, including Dorian, 19th century. Here you can Humberto and Ingrid, made find that the most popular it into the parents' top 1,000, names in 1900 were John while Fernand and Olga flamed and Mary. In the year I was out completely. born, Margaret came in at an Hurricane names are selected by regional committees of the World Meteorological Organization. We have lots of time and impressive 14th, but James plenty of waves to ride before and Linda took the top spots. hurricane season officially ends on Nov. 30. We all hope, of course, for Last year, Jacob and Sophia were the most popular names with parents fewer, smaller and weaker storms, even though the National Oceanic and of American newborns, although we in North Carolina prefer William Atmospheric Administration is predicting an active season in the Atlantic and Emma. Who knew? with as many as 20 named storms, three to six of which could be major But back to Chantal. hurricanes — categories 3, 4 or 5. Chantal had a bit of a run several decades ago. The Social Security Keep your fingers crossed that the NOAA is way off on that prediction! Administration keeps track of the top 1,000 most popular names, and No matter what their size, what happens if there are so many storms Chantal first appeared in 1968 at 955. It shows up most years in the 1980s and '90s, reaching a robust 581 in both 1987 and 1989 before declining to we run out of names for 2013? The National Hurricane Center has thought of that, too, and has a 922 in 1999 and has not been heard from since. plan. If Wendy comes and goes and we still need more names, we will So what other names has the National Weather Service dreamed up for look to the Greek alphabet and proceed with Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta the 2013 hurricane season in the Atlantic? and so on. First a word about process. Not to worry. I have no plans to write about tats next The National Weather Service uses names because they are much week and what they will look like more practical than actual latitude-longitude designations, and names MARGARET DICKSON, Conwhen the wearer is 80 — even make it easier to distinguish among several storms which might be tributing Writer, COMMENTS? though I am always tempted … churning around at the same time during a busy hurricane season. The Editor@upandcomingweekly.com. Daily Specials • Breakfast • Lunch • Dinner Fresh Seafood • Hand Cut Steaks • Homemade Desserts • Italian & Greek • Children's Menu Banquet rooms available up to 100 guests 6 JULY 24-30, 2013 484-0261 1304 Morganton Rd. Mon-Sat: 6am-10pm Sun: 7am-2:30 pm Serving Fayetteville Over 50 Years! WWW.UPANDCOMINGWEEKLY.COM