Three names given to deadly typhoons that wrought havoc in the region have been dropped from an approved list of titles for future storms.
Hundreds were killed in the Hato, Kai-tak and Tembin tropical cyclones that landed in China and the Philippines in 2017.
Those names will be retired and replaced with yamaneko, koinu and yun-yeung, which mean lynx, puppy and mandarin duck or a popular tea-in-coffee drink in the city respectively, the Hong Kong Observatory announced on Wednesday.
The move is made as a mark of respect to those who lost their lives in previous tragedies and to minimise confusion between different weather events.
“According to convention, the Typhoon Committee will consider retiring the name of a tropical cyclone which has caused serious casualties and economic losses,” a statement issued by the Hong Kong Observatory said.
The new names for tropical cyclones in the Asia-Pacific have been endorsed by the Pacific/World Meteorological Organisation Typhoon Committee and the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia.
One of the names ousted, Hato, was the title given to the natural disaster that injured 129 in Hong Kong and killed 10 in Macau in August 2017.
Hato was briefly categorised as a super typhoon, which is a tropical cyclone with a maximum wind speed of at least 185km/h over a 10-minute average.
There were at least 15 deaths in five mainland China provinces including Guangdong and Fujian and more than 6,500 homes were destroyed.
Hato caused more than 28.2 billion yuan (US$4 billion) of damage, according to the Hong Kong Observatory.
Tropical storm Kai-tak and typhoon Tembin hit the Philippines in December 2017 within a week of each other and killed at least 294 people.
More than 70,000 people were made homeless as the storms brought flooding and landslides.
The names are put forward by countries in the region and chosen by the typhoon committee.
Hato and Tembin are Japanese words and mean pigeon and Libra respectively. Kai-tak was contributed by Hong Kong and refers to the city’s former airport.
Yamaneko and koinu are also Japanese, while yun-yeung was a name contributed by Hong Kong.
Yun-yeung, or mandarin duck in English, was a much talked about bird species in 2018 after one appeared in New York’s Central Park, despite the bird being native to Asia.