--- title: Hurricane Harvey, Irma: Couple Married 75 Years Shares Names description: An elderly couple who has never experienced an hurricane shares their names with the storms that have battered the Gulf Coast and Caribbean. canonical: https://time.com/4933347/hurricane-harvey-irma-married-couple-names/ author: Megan McCluskey article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-09-08T16:01:17.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:47:05.394Z og:title: Married Couple Harvey and Irma Share Names With Hurricanes og:description: "I don’t know how that worked out" og:url: https://time.com/4933347/hurricane-harvey-irma-married-couple-names/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt820562503305eb22/6988dcfd0b72e3756e6ef5b6/married-couple.jpg?branch=production&width=464&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 464 og:image:height: 261 og:image:alt: Couple-holding-hands og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Married Couple Harvey and Irma Share Names With Hurricanes twitter:description: "I don’t know how that worked out" twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt820562503305eb22/6988dcfd0b72e3756e6ef5b6/married-couple.jpg?branch=production&width=464&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Meet Harvey and Irma: the Married Couple Who Share Names With Back-to-Back Hurricanes > Sponsored content. 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Every edition is assembled by TIME editors rather than generated automatically.  by [Megan McCluskey](https://time.com/author/megan-mccluskey/)  ## Megan McCluskey Staff Writer Sep 8, 2017 4:01 PM UTC  Couple holding hands Couple holding hands Gary Houlder/Getty Images/Corbis RM Stills  by [Megan McCluskey](https://time.com/author/megan-mccluskey/)  ## Megan McCluskey Staff Writer Sep 8, 2017 4:01 PM UTC A couple who have been [married for 75 years](http://time.com/3989757/couple-married-never-argue/) happen to [share their names](http://time.com/4927889/hurricane-names-history/) with the [back-to-back hurricanes](http://time.com/money/4932315/costliest-hurricanes-ever-irma-harvey/) that have battered the Gulf Coast and Caribbean. According to the [_New York Times_](https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/07/us/harvey-irma-couple.html?smid=fb-nytimes&smtyp=cur&%5Fr=1), this is the first time that Harvey and Irma Schluter — aged 104 and 92, respectively — have seen two storms of this magnitude bearing their names. “I don’t know how they’ve done that, to have a Harvey and Irma,” Mrs. Schluter said. “I don’t know how that worked out.” But while this naming fluke may seem coincidental, there’s a method to the madness. The [World Meteorological Organization](https://public.wmo.int/en/About-us/FAQs/faqs-tropical-cyclones/tropical-cyclone-naming) annually rotates six alphabetically-arranged lists of 21 names — alternating male and female — for Atlantic tropical storms, so each moniker theoretically could be repeated every seventh year. However, names of storms that are unusually deadly or destructive are retired. Irene used to come after Harvey, but was replaced by Irma following the devastation wrought by Hurricane Irene in 2011. It’s likely both Harvey and Irma will be retired after the 2017 storm season, which would mean this is the only time the Schluters will see their names paired together. > [](https://twitter.com/nytimes/status/905997130418069504) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4933347/hurricane-harvey-irma-married-couple-names/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4933347/hurricane-harvey-irma-married-couple-names/"},"headline":"Meet Harvey and Irma: the Married Couple Who Share Names With Back-to-Back Hurricanes","datePublished":"2017-09-08T16:01:17.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:47:05.394Z","description":"An elderly couple who has never experienced an hurricane shares their names with the storms that have battered the Gulf Coast and Caribbean.","url":"https://time.com/4933347/hurricane-harvey-irma-married-couple-names/","keywords":["Newsfeed","weather","Marriage","Bizarre","Love","Hurricanes","Weird News","hurricane harvey","hurricane irma"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt820562503305eb22/6988dcfd0b72e3756e6ef5b6/married-couple.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Megan McCluskey","jobTitle":"Staff Writer","url":"https://time.com/author/megan-mccluskey/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt820562503305eb22/6988dcfd0b72e3756e6ef5b6/married-couple.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Couple-holding-hands","caption":"Couple holding hands","creditText":"Gary Houlder/Getty Images/Corbis RM Stills","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4933347/hurricane-harvey-irma-married-couple-names/","name":"Meet Harvey and Irma: the Married Couple Who Share Names With Back-to-Back Hurricanes"}}]}] ```