Jan Putman, age 12,.of Williamston, Michigan, for her question:

Who names the hurricanes?

Nobody seems to know why these raging storms. have girls' names, but possibly it is because there are more girls' names to choose from. Certainly they were not chosen to name hurricanes because somebody had the notion that girls are more likely to go into hurricane type tantrums. As everybody knows, girls are taught to be gentle    and, sad to say, boys are taught to be tough. This antiquated teaching, says Andy, is just as unnatural as the notion that girls are related to hurricanes.

Hurricanes are named by the National Weather Service, which also issues the warnings and estimates the damage. The hurricanes that concern North Americans the most are those that breed off the West Indies and sometimes sweep onto our southern and eastern coasts. The master list has 84 names, which are arranged alphabetically and rotated during ten year periods.

The alphabetical list for each season goes from A to V, omitting names that begin with Q and U, X and Y and Z. Fortunately, the entire alphabet is never needed to name the hurricanes that occur during a single season    and next season is allotted a new list.

Here is the list of hurricanes allotted for this season: Alice, Brenda, Christine, Delia, Ellen, Fran, Gilda , Helen, Imogene, Joyce, Kate, Loretta, Madge, Nancy, Ona, Patsy, Rose, Sally, Tam, Vera and Wilda.

Please do not feel insulted if your name is on this list. In no way does it imply that girls are more prone to hurricane tantrums than other members of the human race. Most likely, it merely means that the Weather Service people had a longer list of girls' names to choose from.

As of now, the seasonal lists have been compiled through the season of 1980. However, there may be some changes made. Sometimes, as we know, a hurricane strikes our shores with devastating destruction and human lives are lost. Naturally we remember such events with horror and the very name of such a major storm is likely to make us fearful. For this reason, the names of super hurricanes are struck from the master list for a period of ten years.

For example, in the 1950s, a hurricane named Carol struck the eastern seaboard, causing major damage along the New England shores. The code name Carol was scheduled for the third West Indian hurricane of the 1962 season. It was omitted and another name substituted in its place. The code name Carol was not reused until 1965.

Though the West Indian hurricanes do us the most harm, there are others. These so called tropical storms breed in certain areas over tropical seas around the world. Another center is off the west coast of Central America and these hurricanes sometimes brush by our southern Pacific coast, before turning out to sea. They, too, occur in seasons and the Weather Service has a similar list to name them. These code words also are girl's names.