FACTBOX: Atlantic hurricane naming rules

(Reuters) - Atlantic Ocean hurricanes are named according to a rotating list of easily pronounced names approved by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO).

The National Hurricane Center (NHC), which created the original list of names, says experience shows that the use of short, distinctive given names is easier than older cumbersome methods of latitude-longitude identification.

"The use of easily remembered names greatly reduces confusion when two or more tropical storms occur at the same time," NHC says on its website.

The 21 names in each year's list flow alphabetically.

Actual named storms on the 2008 list so far are Arthur, Bertha, Cristobal, Dolly, Edouard, Fay, Gustav, Hanna. The remaining names on this year's list are Ike, Josephine, Kyle, Laura, Marco, Nana, Omar, Paloma, Rene, Sally, Teddy, Vicky and Wilfred.

Here are some facts from NHC about hurricane names:

* Historically, many hurricanes in the West Indies were for hundreds of years named after the particular saint's day on which the storm occurred. Examples include "Hurricane Santa Ana" which struck Puerto Rico July 26, 1825.

* Since 1953, Atlantic tropical storms have been named from lists originated by the NHC but the lists are now maintained and updated by an international committee of the WMO.

* Only women's names were featured on the original NHC lists; men's names were introduced in 1979 and alternate with the women's.

* There's a total of six lists used in rotation, meaning the 2008 list will be used again in 2014 and the 2009 list will be on the rota in 2015 and so on.

* If a storm is so deadly or costly, it is deemed inappropriate to use its name for a future storm. The list of retired names includes the devastating 2005 hurricanes Katrina and Rita; others are Andrew (1992) and Dean (2007).

* Should more than 21 named storms occur in the Atlantic in a season, additional storms will have Greek alphabet names such as Alpha, Beta, Gamma and so on. An off-season, say a February storm, takes the next name in the list based on the current calendar date.

(Reporting by Haitham Haddadin; Editing by Marguerita Choy)