Does the NWS actually name winter storms, or is this exclusive to the Weather Channel? If you occasionally check the Weather Channel (either the smartphone app or online), you'll see they reference strong weather systems by name. (It only seems to be eastern storms.) I've always wondered if this was just something The Weather Channel does--for whatever reason--of if the NWS really does name them.
It is just the Weather Channel. You can tell which businesses frequently watch (or even do business with) the Weather Channel by whether or not they refer to them by these names. The naming of winter storms irks many of the meteorologists I know (including myself).