User blog:Whiplash/Is it time to add 'Z' names to the Atlantic naming lists?

With the increasing frequency of storms in the Atlantic the likelihood of running out of names on the annual Atlantic storm name lists is growing. While so far since the advent of the modern naming lists in 1979 there has been only one occasion where the list was exhausted - the hyperactive 2005 season. Yet, since 2005 the number of years seeing large amounts of named storms has jumped. Consider this before 1995 there had never been a year with the P, R, S, or T letters being used, and yet during this decade - which has not even ended - we have had 3 years having P, R, and S named storms and 2 having T named storms. The increasingly likelihood of running our of regular names means that Greek letter names such as Alpha, Beta, Gamma, etc... are going to become increasingly common. The problem with relying much on these names is it could result in potentially destructive hurricanes bearing these names which the World Meteorological Organization says it won't retire. Not only does this go against the reasons for retiring names which are to avoid obvious insensitivity of reusing devastating storm names but will also make it more difficult for scientists to differentiate multiple systems which share the same name.

Anyone who is familiar with the Atlantic naming lists will know that certain letters are omitted as there simply is not a great variety of names available to choose from. Those letters are: Q, U, X, Y, and Z. Some basins like the Eastern Pacific basin which is typically more active than the Atlantic do in fact use some of these letters however but tend to recycle one male and one female name for each letter over a 6 year cycle rather than having 3 unique male and 3 unique female names. With letters such as Q and U where there is a dearth of many names beyond ones such as Quentin or Quincy, or Utor(?) and Uma it makes sense not have their inclusion. However, the one letter which I have always felt has enough names to be included on its own in the Atlantic list is the letter Z. Not only is there quite a large selection of names which start with the letter Z but many Z names have become more popular and identifiable in recent year. The fact that Z will also not be used as frequently as other letters and as such will run the risk of retirement as often means that now is probably a good time to add Z names to list and make the lists 22 letters long. In fact, in the past during the female only lists Z was at one point a letter which could've been used.

Consider the following as fairly common Z names:

Male
 * Zack/Zachary
 * Zacharias
 * Zavier
 * Zane/Zayn
 * Zander
 * Zeb/Zebulon
 * Zed
 * Zeke
 * Zeus
 * Zigmund
 * Zoro
 * Zvi

Female
 * Zalie
 * Zara
 * Zasu
 * Zaza
 * Zelda
 * Zenda
 * Zenesha
 * Zenia
 * Zenobia
 * Zia
 * Zita
 * Zoe
 * Zola
 * Zora

This is certainly a fair selection of names which would merit adding the additional letter and many of them while maybe not exceptionally common are not totally outlandish letters either. Do you agree that Z names should be added to the list?