Hurricanes allotted female names kill nearly three times as many as those given masculine names, they said.
But people threatened by the storms take those with girls’ names less seriously.
If people are judging the risk based on a storm’s name, this is potentially very dangerous.
All hurricanes were once given female names because of their unpredictability, but that changed in the late 70s to avoid charges of sexism.
The study of 92 hurricanes to hit America from 1950 to 2012, conducted at Illinois University, found this may have cost lives. Leaving aside Katrina, which killed 2,300, hurricanes with girls’ names killed 41.84 on average, while those given male names caused 15.15 deaths.
When they asked people to rate hurricanes based on names, researchers found Christina or Victoria were considered less risky.
The report was released at the start of the six month hurricane season.
Researcher Kiju Jung said: “If people are judging the risk based on a storm’s name, this is potentially very dangerous.”