Here's a breakdown:There's a list of names to pick fromA United Nations World Meteorological Organization committee compiles a list of names, according to the National Hurricane Center.
"Obviously, the main purpose of naming a tropical cyclone/hurricane is basically for people easily to understand and remember the tropical cyclone/hurricane in a region, thus to facilitate tropical cyclone/hurricane disaster risk awareness, preparedness, management and reduction," the organization says.
In the US, hurricanes and tropical storms were tracked by the year and order in which they occurred until the mid-1900s, NOAA says.
So the US began using female names for storms and later added male names for all Northern Pacific storms.
No, tornadoes don't get similar treatmentThe only natural phenomena that are marked with the human-like feature are tropical storms and hurricanes.