Remember Agnes? 14 Maryland Hurricane Names You May Want To Forget

They've become synonymous with our state's history.

The names of the tropical storms and hurricanes that made headlines roll off our tongues like the names of our famous politicians, sporting icons and wacky aunts and uncles: Hazel, Agnes, Gloria, Isabel and Sandy.

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Maryland has been spared "the big one" on most occasions, but for roughly 60 years, named hurricanes have battered our water-oriented state, altering our lifestyles and our history.

Here's a list of some of the worst hurricanes to hit Maryland among those retired hurricane names:

• Hazel — Oct. 1954 » The storm drove almost due north from the Carolinas and caused flooding along the waterfront communities of the Chesapeake Bay.
• Connie & Diane — Oct. 1955 » Just days apart in their torture on the East Coast, the storms caused widespread flooding. Connie essentially came right up the Bay. Meanwhile, Diane came on land near the Carolina boarder and turned east to pass over northern Maryland before going back out to sea.
• Agnes — June 1972 » The storm spared little of Maryland with its flooding, and remains one of the most storied tropical cyclones to strike the state.
• Eloise — Sept. 1975 » Initial landfall was well south, but the storm seemed to park in Maryland, where it dumped more than two feet of rain in some places.
• David — Sept. 1979 » The storm made landfall in Florida, but maintained its strength on land, spurning tornados as it came through Maryland.
• Gloria — Sept. 1985 » The storm charged right at the mouth of the bay before turning to the northeast, sparing the U.S. coast from the worst of the storm.
• Fran — Sept. 1996 » The storm made landfall in the Carolinas and drove northwest, impacting Western Maryland moreso than the central and eastern portions of the state.
• Isabel — Sept. 2003 » The storm drove west of the Chesapeake Bay, bringing destructive storm surge into the waterfront communities in Maryland.
• Frances, Ivan & Jeanne — Sept. 2004 » The trio of hurricanes hit over a four-week stretch in a busy season.
• Irene — Aug. 2011 » The storm passed Maryland on the ocean side, meaning the Chesapeake Bay area was spared the storm surges that waterfront communities had anticipated.
• Sandy — Oct. 2012 » The storm made landfall just north of the upper Chesapeake Bay region, and destroyed the Ocean City fishing pier.