Say, Matt: Who is responsible for discovering the gender of a hurricane? Better yet, who gets to name ’em? — K. Gleeson-Duff, San Diego

Matt: Who is it that names hurricanes, and how can I get one named after my wife? — Jim, downtown

If the hurricane namers haven’t already gotten wind of your spouse’s reputation and placed her name on the list, it’s probably too late. There are six sets of hurricane names that are recycled continually (that is, each set is used once every six years), and it’s unusual for the lists to change. A name is dropped only when a storm is so big and destructive that it will be talked about for years to come. Most recently, “Hugo” was retired, so five years from now they’ll have to think of a substitute. Unless your wife’s name is something like Herb or Horace or Humphrey, I’m afraid she won’t be in the running.

Hurricane namers are members of the World Meteorological Organization, who also have such duties as keeping an eye on the ozone layer and looking out for other global weather-related phenomena. They name the storms alphabetically, alternating women’s and men’s names. When the system was first established in 1953, the scientists used women’s names because of the long-established, popular tradition of referring to ships, trains, assorted machinery, and any big, mysterious, uncontrollable things as “she." But pressure from feminist groups convinced them to do more research, which revealed that every other hurricane is actually male and so should bear a man’s name. That system was in place in 1979. The names chosen are ones popular in countries likely to be flattened by hurricanes; Atlantic Ocean storms receive American or Caribbean monikers.