1979 WMHB Atlantic hurricane season (Cooper)

The 1979 Atlantic hurricane season was the first season to include both male and female names, as well as the common six-year rotating lists of tropical cyclone names. The season officially began on June 1 and ended on November 30. These dates historically describe the period of year when most tropical cyclones form in the Atlantic basin. The 1979 season proved to be an active, destructive, and very deadly season.

Storm names
The following list of names was used for named storms that formed in the North Atlantic in 1979. The names not retired from this list were used again in the 1985 season. This year marked the first usage for all of these names with the exceptions of Elena and Gloria, which were previously used in 1965 and 1976, respectively.

Retirement
In the spring of 1980, at the 2nd session of the RA IV hurricane committee, the World Meteorological Organization retired the names Frederic and Henri from its rotating name lists due to the amount of deaths and damage they caused, and they will not be used again for another Atlantic hurricane. They were replaced with Fabian and Herbert for the 1985 season.