BigShoes

There’s wind, there’s rain, here comes a hurricane, here’s Dolly!

Dolly? Dolly? What were they thinking to name a hurricane Dolly? Well apparently it was on the list and it won’t be the last time it is used unless it is devastating to the proportion that it is too traumatic for us (Katrina, retired 2005). There are six lists that are repeated every seventh year and apparently this is Dolly’s year and perhaps it was in 2002 (I don’t remember) and it will be again in 2014.

How do I know all this? Well, I wanted to know who names a hurricane Dolly? I don’t know their names but they are members of the World Meteorological Organization. Hey I want in. There certainly wouldn’t have been a Dolly on the list.

I found this great chart on retired hurricane names that date back to 1954 when they began the retirement process. It got me to thinking; can we have one of these for baby names? Do you think Social Security could retire names when they do all that other stuff they do with tax payer money to give us a report on popular baby names? I’m sure my family has used up its quota on the name Violet (paternal and maternal grandmothers both named Violet).

To reuse a name we could have a special exception for Juniors or to be named after someone within so many generations…or you could pay for a retired name to be reinstated, it could be an adopt a name program and we could spend the money on a good cause. If you are really eager to support the program you can pay money to add a name to the retired list…like the one you disagree on with your spouse or because there are five students with the same name in your child’s classroom.

We could also just simplify things and follow the lead of the World Meteorological Organization and rotate six lists of 26 names every seven years, of names we could spell.

But really folks, Dolly?

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