What's in a name?

As Hurricane Dennis peters out, I find myself wondering: why do we name hurricanes, anyway? And it’s not necessarily that I have a problem with giving a natural occurrence a human name, but why only hurricanes? Are tornadoes not “human” enough?
So I got to thinking, and I decided that we should name more crap. Here are a few examples. (Feel free to provide your own.)

“Hailstorm Harry sure screwed up my car.”

“I had every intention of coming to the party, until I ran into Dysentery Stu.”

“Just wait ‘til Broken Arm Leroy is gone, and then your ass is mine.”