Philippine Typhoon Names, Explained

Within the northwestern Pacific, two separate agencies assign names to tropical cyclones, which can result in a system carrying two names at once. Neither agency defers to the other; each names storms under its own criteria, on its own schedule, which is why a system can be "Typhoon Doksuri" internationally and "Egay" locally in the same breaking-news report.

PAGASA has assigned local names to storms entering the PAR since 1963. The naming system has been revised several times since, most recently in 2021, to keep the list current and to remove names carrying unintended associations.

PAGASA maintains four alphabetic sets of 25 regular names each, cycling one set per year on a four-year rotation. The first storm of the year gets the name beginning with A, and PAGASA works alphabetically down the active set as one system succeeds another.

2026 uses Set II, the same set last active in 2022 and due back again in 2030 and 2034, aside from any names retired in between. A name in Set II has no relationship to the same letter's name in Set III; each set runs independently across its own four-year cycle.

PAGASA has assigned local names to storms entering the PAR since 1963. In 1999, PAGASA announced its intention to retire its older naming scheme because the names were sometimes seen as odd, outdated, or sexist, and launched the "Name a Bagyo Contest," gathering 140 usable public entries in 1998 to rebuild the list. Submitted names had to be easy to pronounce and could not start with Ñ, NG, or X.

The lists have been revised again in 2001, 2005, and 2021, when PAGASA introduced a "Reserved List" as an added structural layer for exceptional seasons. Not every removal traces back to death or damage: Gloria was pulled in 2005 over then-president Gloria Macapagal Arroyo's disputed election and the Hello Garci scandal, and Nonoy was pulled in 2015 for resembling Noynoy, then-president Benigno Aquino III's nickname. Even the current Set III list carries a trace of this: Kanor was meant to replace Katring but was swapped for Karding after public backlash over a sexist personality nicknamed Mang Kanor, meaning Karding was already a substitute name before it was retired again in 2022.