Ask a met: Polo, Nolo, Lala? What's the deal with all the Pacific hurricane names that are just two repeating syllables?

"Polo, Nolo, Lala? What's the deal with all the Pacific hurricane names that are just two repeating syllables?" — Kevin

A lot of this comes down to coincidence and time of the year, but there are some linguistics embedded in the Central Pacific names that tipped the chances of repeated syllables. 

Let’s start with Marco Polo, err… Polo 'n Nolo. These are the names that have gotten the most chatter in the newsroom and online in the last few weeks. 

Coincidental timing of names has been a theme this year, starting with Tropical Storm Dolly being named within days of Dolly Parton’s death. That name first appeared on naming lists when Dolly Parton was just 7 years old. It happens to be on a list that rotates every six years, and nobody knew or planned for that name to be on the list in the same year the beloved singer and philanthropist would pass.

Likewise, Polo is on another rotating list that appears every six years and goes from A to Z through the year. This was just the 16th storm of this season in the East Pacific. Polo isn’t a popular name in English-speaking countries, but it is a nickname in Spanish and Italian for common names like Paolo and Pablo.

Nolo (and Lala) are on a slightly different kind of list, from Hawaii. Those Central Pacific names are on a never-ending list of 48 names that continue to rotate because the number of tropical storms that form close to Hawaii is far fewer than closer to Mexico or in the Atlantic. 

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Another thing that is unique about the Central Pacific names is that they’re all Hawaiian. This makes for a list of shorter names due to the lack of consonant clusters in Hawaiian and a shorter Hawaiian alphabet, which only has seven consonants and five vowels. Nearly every name is a back and forth between vowel and consonant. Keoni, Malia, Niala, Iona, Iolana, Iopa and Iune are the only exceptions to that pattern. 

The fact that Polo and Nolo happened at the same time from two different lists is purely coincidental.

And if you’re wondering, Marco is actually a name on the Atlantic side this hurricane season if we ever get there. We would need five more tropical storms this season. Of course, they’ve already broken the rules of the game: Polo is supposed to follow Marco.

Jonathan Belles has been a digital meteorologist for weather.com for 10 years. His favorite weather is tropical weather, but also enjoys covering high-impact weather and news stories and winter storms. He's a two-time graduate of Florida State University and a proud graduate of St. Petersburg College.