List of retired Pacific typhoon names

During the latter stages of World War II, forecasters with the United States Armed Forces started to informally name tropical cyclones that occurred over the Pacific Ocean, after their wives and sweethearts.^[1][2] In 1945, after the practice had become popular among forecasters who found that it reduced confusion during map discussions, the USAAF formalised the scheme and started to publicly assign female names to systems in the Northern Hemisphere and male names to tropical cyclones that occurred in the Southern Hemisphere.^[3][4] Over the next few years, the names were chosen by the 2143 Air Weather Wing and were assigned to systems when they were first established as a typhoon by warning centres in Guam, Japan or the Philippines.^[5] During 1959, in an effort to reduce redundancy and improve communications, the United States Armed Forces consolidated its various typhoon warning centres into a Joint Typhoon Warning Center (JTWC), which took over the warning responsibilities on 1 May 1959.^[6][7] During the 1960s, the names Karen, Lucille and Ophelia were retired after Karen had impacted Guam, Lucille had killed 300 people in the Philippines and Ophelia had travelled over 5,000 mi (8,045 km).^[8] In 1963, the Philippine Weather Bureau started to use Filipino women's nicknames ending in "Ng" from A to Y to name all tropical cyclones that occurred within its self-defined area of responsibility, regardless of whether the JTWC had named it.^[9]

In October 1974, a United States reconnaissance aircraft and its crew of six went missing while it was investigating Typhoon Bess; as a result, the JTWC intended to replace the name with Bonnie.^[10] In August 1978, the JTWC initially named another tropical cyclone "Bess" before changing the system's name to "Bonnie" in subsequent warnings.^[10] After the 1979 tropical cyclone conference, the JTWC started to use a new list of tropical cyclone names that contained both male and female names, as well as the name Bess.^[11][12] At the 1983 tropical cyclone conference, the names Hazen and Pamela were retired after they had caused severe impacts to the Mariana Islands, while Bess was retired again after the 54th Weather Reconnaissance Squadron asked for it to be retired due to the loss of the crew in 1974.^[13] The name Ike was retired after it had made landfall in the Philippines and killed over 900 people during September 1984.^[8] Subsequently, the name Roy was retired after causing widespread damage to the Mariana Islands during January 1988.^[8] The naming list was updated at the 1989 tropical cyclone conference and was used after Typhoon Wayne (1989) had been named in September 1989.^[14][15] The names Mike, Mireille, Thelma and Omar were retired from the list of names in 1991, 1992 and 1993.^[8] During December 1997, Tropical Storm Paka moved into the basin and significantly impacted both the Marshall Islands and the Mariana Islands before its name was retired from the list of Pacific hurricane names.^[16]

In October 1995, the JTWC announced that it would introduce a new list of names in January 1996, drawn from an American baby book, rather than using regional names, to avoid tensions between countries.^[17] Later that year, the Hong Kong Observatory (HKO) proposed that the ESCAP/WMO's Typhoon Committee should be the body to name tropical cyclones over the basin, which it hoped would lead to the names being standardised over the region.^[18] In response, the Committee noted that the implementation of the proposal would be a long process and that it would need to collaborate with other bodies, while it urged its members to consider the proposal ahead of discussions during forthcoming sessions.^[18] In November 1997, the Committee revisited the proposal where it was suggested that the usage of Asian names over the region would make warnings more effective by enhancing people's alertness to an approaching tropical cyclone.^[8][19] As a result, it decided to endorse the proposal before instructing a task force to work out the details of the scheme and present a list of names for approval at the next session of the Committee.^[19][8][20] The task force met during August 1998 and decided that each of the fourteen Committee members, including the United States and the Philippines, would submit ten names, which would then be used in alphabetical order based on the English alphabetical order of the contributing members name.^[8][21] It was also decided that the names would consist of no more than nine characters, be easy to pronounce, have no negative implications and not cause any difficulties for any contributor or be the name of a commercial brand.^[8][21] In the interests of harmony and cooperation, it was decided that any name proposed should have the support of all contributors and that a single objection would be sufficient to veto a proposed name.^[8][21] A list of 140 names was subsequently drawn up and submitted to the Typhoon Committee's 31st session, where the naming list was approved.^[8][21]

Over the next year, the spellings of a few of the names were slightly modified, before they started to be used by the Japan Meteorological Agency on 1 January 2000, with the first name, Damrey, being named on 7 May 2000.^[22][23] At its 33rd session in November 2000, the Committee was informed that the India Meteorological Department had objected to the name Hanuman being used due to religious sentiments, while the United States requested that the name Kodo be changed as it would have an undesirable meaning if mispronounced.^[24] At the same session, the Thai Meteorological Department requested that the spellings of several names be corrected and indicated a desire to change the names Prapiroon, Durian and Khanun.^[24] In response, the Committee accepted the spelling changes before establishing a procedure for the replacement of tropical cyclone names, so that all members would have a chance to comment on the appropriateness of the name.^[24] In November 2002, the Committee retired the name Vamei after it became the first tropical cyclone to occur near the equator on record, while the names Rusa and Chataan were retired after impacting Micronesia, Korea and Japan.^[8][25] At its 37th session in November 2004, the Committee decided to retire the names Pongsona, Maemi, Sudal and Rananim after they had impacted the Mariana Islands, the Philippines, China and Japan.^[26] During April 2005, the HKO in conjunction with RTHK's Radio 1 invited the public to submit names in both English and Chinese, after which a judging panel selected Taichi and Kapok as replacement names for Yanyan and Tingting, which were removed from the naming lists at Hong Kong's request.^[8][27][28] At its 38th session, the Committee rejected the names Taichi and Kapok in favour of Dolphin and Lionrock, as the former had negative implications in other languages, while it retired the names Matsa, Nabi and Longwang after they had impacted the Mariana Islands, China, Japan, and South Korea.^[28][29]

During August 2006, Hurricane Ioke moved into the basin from the Central Pacific and significantly impacted Wake Island, before it was retired from the list of Pacific hurricane names.^[16] Later that year, the Committee retired the names Chanchu, Bilis, Saomai, Xangsane and Durian, after they had caused significant impacts to the Philippines, Taiwan and China.^[30] There were no names retired by the Committee after the 2007 and 2008 seasons, before the names Morakot, Ketsana, Parma, Fanapi, Washi, Bopha, Utor, Fitow and Haiyan were retired at the 42nd, 43rd, 44th, 45th and 46th sessions of the Typhoon Committee, after causing significant impacts to the Philippines, Taiwan and China.^{[31][32][33][34][35][36]} At the 46th session in 2014, the name Sonamu was also retired from the list, after it had caused unprecedented panic in coastal parts of eastern Malaysia, due to its similarity to the word "tsunami".^[36] The name Vicente was also removed to avoid any potential confusion, after it was noted that the name appeared on the naming lists for both the Western Pacific and the Eastern Pacific.^[37] Over the next few years, the names Rammasun, Soudelor, Mujigae, Koppu, Melor, Meranti, Sarika, Haima, Nock-ten, Hato, Kai-tak, Tembin, Rumbia, Mangkhut, Yutu, Lekima, Faxai, Hagibis, Kammuri, Phanfone, Vongfong, Linfa, Molave, Goni and Vamco were all retired after causing significant impacts to various countries in the region.^[38][39]

In April 2022, the Typhoon Committee received an email from the United Kingdom's Met Office (UKMO), which noted that there had been considerable reaction among Greek-speaking social media users to the name Malakas for a typhoon due to its alternative meaning.^[40] As a result, the name was retired by the Committee at its 55th session in March 2023, along with the names Conson, Kompasu, Rai, Megi, Ma-on, Noru, Nalgae and Hinnamnor after they had impacted China, Korea, the Philippines and Vietnam.^[40][41] At the following three sessions, the names Doksuri, Saola, Haikui, Ewiniar, Yagi, Krathon, Trami, Kong-rey, Toraji, Usagi, Man-yi, Wipha, Co-May, Mitag, Ragasa, Bualoi, Matmo, Kalmaegi and Fung-wong were retired after they caused significant impacts to various countries in the basin.^[42][43][44] At the 57th session in February 2025, the Committee also retired the name Jebi, after receiving an email from the UKMO which expressed concern over the name.^[43]

• List of retired Atlantic hurricane names
• List of retired Pacific hurricane names
• List of retired Philippine typhoon names
• List of retired Australian region cyclone names
• List of retired South Pacific cyclone names