A friend at dinner recently asked, "Why are they always named Bertha?" as I jabbered on about the storm the day it stalled out – before it revived and knocked out power in Bermuda.

Hurricanes are not always named Bertha, but the name comes up every seventh year, so it may sound familiar. The World Meteorological Organization maintains six lists of names for tropical cyclones in the Atlantic. Names in 2008 will repeat in 2014.

The Organization has about a dozen different lists of names for tropical cyclones. The Figi region has its own list; Australia has three; the Northern Indian Ocean and Southern Indian Ocean each have one.

Northern Pacific names come off a different list, but they rotate every six years like their Atlantic counterparts.

We don't hear much about the Pacific storms here in the U.S. because they threaten land less frequently. Hurricane Fausto is off Mexico's Pacific coast. Tropical Storm Dolly, on the other hand, looks headed for the Mexico-Texas border. And Tropical Storm Cristobal is off the U.S. Atlantic coast after dumping rain on the shores of the Carolinas.

Atlantic storms like Cristobal and Dolly we watch. Closely. Next up, we've got Edouard, Fay, Gustav and Hanna.

Male and female names alternate. The World Meteorological Organization brought the guys on board in 1979, abandoning the decades-old practice of using only women's names.

The names of big storms – like Andrew in 1992; Charley Frances, Ivan and Jeanne in 2004; and Dennis, Katrina, Rita, Stan and Wilma in 2005; are retired when they especially costly, or deadly, or both.