If you see that a storm named Dim-sum is gathering steam in the Pacific Ocean, it’s not an error.

如果你看到一个名叫“点心”的风暴在太平洋上生成，那并不是笔误。

In June, as the Pacific typhoon season began, the Hong Kong Observatory said it had chosen the city’s bite-sized cuisine as its latest contribution to the list of names for tropical cyclones that form in the Pacific.

6月，随着太平洋台风季的到来，香港天文台表示，它选择这座城市的小吃美食来为太平洋生成的热带气旋命名名单贡献一个新名字。

It’s not the first time that Hong Kong has named a storm after a beloved symbol. Typhoon Dolphin, which is forecast to approach Japan and Taiwan this weekend, takes its name from the city’s animal mascot.

这并不是香港第一次用一个深受喜爱的城市象征为风暴命名。预计本周末将逼近日本和台湾的“白海豚”台风，其名字就来源于香港的动物吉祥物。

The names are compiled by the Typhoon Committee, which was formed in 1968 by the United Nations and the World Meteorological Organization to help Asia Pacific countries prepare for tropical storms. The committee maintains an active list of 140 names, divided into five columns, that it cycles through every four or five years, depending on the frequency of storms.

这些名字由台风委员会编制。该委员会由联合国和世界气象组织在1968年共同成立，旨在帮助亚太国家做好应对热带风暴的准备。该委员会维护着一份包含140个名字的现行名单，分为五组列表，根据风暴发生频率，大约每四到五年循环使用一次。

Each of the committee’s 14 members — including the United States, China, the Koreas, Hong Kong and Malaysia — contributes 10 names. They are drawn from each member’s language and culture, resulting in storms named for animals, plants, historical and mythological figures, and, of course, food.

委员会的14个成员——包括美国、中国、朝鲜、韩国、香港和马来西亚——各自提供10个名字。这些名称来自各成员的语言和文化，因此一些台风的名字取自动物、植物、历史人物和神话人物，当然，也有食物。

That means Dim-sum will eventually be joined by typhoons such as Gaeguri (frog, in Korean), Burapha (the Thai word for “east”) and Tirou (a Micronesian greeting), according to the committee’s latest list of names released in March.

这意味着，根据委员会今年3月公布的最新名单，“点心”最终还会与“简古维”（朝鲜语的“青蛙”之意）、“布拉帕”（泰语中的“东方”之意）以及“蒂鲁”（密克罗尼西亚语中的一种问候语）等台风名字一起出现在名单上。

Here’s how the system works.

这个命名体系是这样运作的。

U.S. forecasters started the naming practice.

美国气象预报员开创了台风命名的做法。

本月初的飓风季第一天，位于迈阿密的国家飓风中心展示的2026年大西洋热带气旋命名名单。

Tropical cyclones form when warm ocean water, moist air and light winds persist long enough to combine into systems that produce violent winds, large waves and torrential rain. Those that form over the western Pacific Ocean and affect Asia are called typhoons.

热带气旋的形成始于温暖的洋面、潮湿的空气和微弱的风持续足够长的时间，待它们汇聚成气象系统后，便能产生狂风、巨浪和暴雨。在太平洋西部形成并影响亚洲的热带气旋被称为台风。

During World War II, meteorologists in several Asian countries were prevented from working by occupying Japanese forces because weather forecasts were considered sensitive military intelligence, Rey Lirios, a historian at the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration, said in an interview. As a result, those countries relied on American military forecasters in the U.S. Pacific territory of Guam.

菲律宾大气地球物理天文局的历史学家雷·利里奥斯在接受采访时说，第二次世界大战期间，亚洲一些国家的气象学家因为日军占领而无法正常工作，因为天气预报被视为敏感的军事情报。因此，这些国家不得不依靠驻扎在美国太平洋属地关岛的美军气象预报员。

To distinguish among storms, American forecasters first compiled a list of female names, often drawn from their wives and girlfriends, according to meteorologists. In the 1970s, amid the gender equality movement, the U.S. government began adding male names, according to Lam Chiu Ying, a former director of the Hong Kong Observatory, in a 2017 video interview.

据气象学家介绍，为区分不同风暴，美国的预报员最初汇编了一份由女性名字组成的名单，通常取自他们的妻子和女友之名。香港天文台原台长林超英在2017年一段视频采访中说，进入上世纪70年代，随着性别平等运动兴起，美国政府开始在名单中加入男性名字。

Some naming processes are open to the public.

部分命名程序向公众开放。

Members of the Typhoon Committee pushed to replace American names with regional ones in the 1990s. Some opened the process to the public.

台风委员会成员在20世纪90年代推动以具有地区特色的名字取代美国式的名字。一些成员还将提名过程向公众开放。

“We wanted to leave all of the old names behind in the 20th century,” said Mr. Lirios, who created the criteria for the Philippines’ public submissions in 1999.

“我们希望把所有旧名字都留在20世纪，”利里奥斯说。他曾在1999年为菲律宾建立了公众提名标准。

He said the Typhoon Committee rejected names that were indecent or carried negative connotations in other languages. Storms also cannot be named for public figures, including politicians and celebrities.

他说，台风委员会拒绝那些在其他语言中不雅或带有负面含义的名字。台风也不能以公众人物命名，包括政治人物和名人。

In 2005, the committee rejected two names chosen by the public in Hong Kong. Taichi, the ancient Chinese martial art, could be mistaken as a Japanese man’s name, while Kapok, the cotton tree, sounded like a slang term for sexual organs in some languages, Mr. Lam said.

林超英说，2005年的时候，委员会拒绝了香港公众选出的两个名称：太极(Taichi)——中国古老武术，但它也可能会被误认为是日本男性的名字；木棉(Kapok)——它在某些语言中听起来像是对性器官的俚语称呼。

Dim-sum, by contrast, was uncontroversial. Lui Yuk Sing, a spokesman for the Hong Kong Observatory, said it was selected by the public in 2024, along with Sparrow and Shui-sin, the Cantonese word for daffodil.

相比之下，“点心”则毫无争议。香港天文台发言人吕旭昇表示，这个名字是香港公众在2024年选出的，与它一起入选的还有“麻雀”和“水仙”。

The names reflect regional culture.

这些名字体现了不同地区的文化。

Aside from Dim-sum and Dolphin, Hong Kong has submitted Banyan, named for the tree, and Lionrock, for a mountain overlooking the city.

除了“点心”和“白海豚”，香港以前还提交了“榕树”和“狮子山”这两个名字，前者取自树木名，后者则来自俯瞰香港的一座山。

The Japan Meteorological Agency said in an email that it typically contributes the Japanese names of constellations, such as Koinu (“puppy,” for Canis Minor) and Koguma (“bear cub,” for Ursa Minor). The committee’s list also includes mythological figures such as the Chinese folk heroine Mulan, the Micronesian nature goddess Sinlaku and the Vietnamese mountain god Son Tinh.

日本气象厅在一封电子邮件中表示，日本通常提供星座的日语名称，如“小犬”（对应小犬座）和“小熊”（对应小熊座）。该委员会的名单还包括神话人物，如中国民间传说中的女英雄“木兰”、密克罗尼西亚自然女神“森拉克”和越南的“山神”。

Malaysia submits the names of native flora and fauna that are easy to pronounce, like the Cempaka flower, said Mazly Bin Mohamed, a spokesman for the Malaysian Meteorological Department. Other countries also draw inspiration from nature, including Vietnam’s Ha Long Bay, Thailand’s Khanun (meaning “jackfruit”) and the Philippines’ Mount Amuyao.

马来西亚气象部门发言人穆罕默德·马兹利·本·穆罕默德表示，马来西亚提交的是本地动植物的名称，易于发音，如“查帕卡”。其他国家也从自然中汲取灵感，包括越南的“夏浪”、泰国的“卡努”（菠萝蜜果）和菲律宾的“阿穆丘”。

Because the Philippines is typically one of the first countries in a typhoon’s path, Filipino meteorologists assign storms a local name, Mr. Lirios said.

利里奥斯说，由于菲律宾通常是台风最早经过的国家，因此菲律宾气象学家还会给台风另取一个当地名称。

For example, Typhoon Jangmi, which caused heavy flooding in the Philippines and Japan in early June, was known in the Philippines as Domeng, a local diminutive of Domingo.

例如，今年6月初给菲律宾和日本造成严重洪灾的“蔷薇”台风在菲律宾就被称为“Domeng”，这是当地对“Domingo”这个人名的一种昵称形式。

The names of deadly storms are often removed from the list.

造成重大伤亡的台风名称通常会从名单中被删除。

2013年台风“Yolanda”（又称“海燕”）过后，菲律宾吉万市遭受严重破坏。

Some names are retired after becoming associated with particularly devastating or deadly storms.

一些台风名在与特别具有破坏性或造成重大伤亡的灾难性风暴产生关联后，会被正式撤销。

The Philippines stopped using the local name Yolanda after the 2013 typhoon that killed more than 6,000 people. The Typhoon Committee retired the storm’s official name, Haiyan, in 2015.

2013年的台风“Yolanda”造成逾6000人罹难，此后菲律宾停止使用这一本地名称。台风委员会则于2015年正式撤销了该台风的官方名称“海燕”。

This year, the committee added Dim-sum to the list to replace Man-yi, which was retired after the storm caused more than a dozen deaths in the Philippines in 2024.

今年，委员会将“点心”加入名单，以取代“万宜”——后者2024年在菲律宾造成十余人死亡后被永久除名。