About August
August is a European form of Augustus, a Latin name meaning exalted or venerable. In English it can also come from the month, itself named for the Roman emperor Augustus. Playwright August Wilson gives the name a major literary connection, while its recent American rise renews a much older tradition of use.
Roman title and calendar name
Augustus was the title of Rome's first emperor, Octavian, and later became an imperial title used by his successors. The Latin word is associated with dignity and reverence. August developed as a given-name form in German, Polish, Scandinavian, and other European languages.
The calendar route reaches the same historical figure: the month of August was named for the emperor. A modern English August can consequently combine an established personal name with the familiar name of a late-summer month.
Augusta is a feminine relative. French Auguste, Italian and Spanish Augusto, and Icelandic Ágúst belong to the same family. Augie and Gus are established English familiar forms, drawing on different parts of the longer name.
August Wilson and Fences
August Wilson won the 1987 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for Fences. Set in 1957 Pittsburgh, the play centers on Troy Maxson, a former Negro-league baseball player now working as a garbage collector.
Troy's disappointment about the opportunities denied to him affects his relationships with his wife, Rose, and his son, Cory. The play brings ambition, family responsibility, and the legacy of racial exclusion into a domestic setting. Wilson's name became inseparable from a body of work examining African American lives across the twentieth century.
The Piano Lesson
Wilson won another drama Pulitzer in 1990 for The Piano Lesson. This play returns to Pittsburgh, in 1936, where Berniece and her brother Boy Willie disagree about the fate of their family's piano.
Boy Willie wants to sell it to finance the purchase of land. Berniece sees it as an irreplaceable connection with their ancestors. The disagreement makes a household object the center of a larger question about inheritance: what can be sold, and what must be kept because of the lives and memories it carries.
Together, these plays give August a particularly substantial connection with American theater. The name appears on work in which family stories reveal the pressures of a wider history.
Pronunciation and American popularity
English August is pronounced AW-gust, with stress at the beginning. German pronunciation begins closer to OW, while retaining two syllables. The given name commonly shares the English month's pronunciation.
August ranked #74 for United States boys in 1880, its strongest ranking. After falling to #851 in 1980, it revived to #81 in 2025, with 3,958 births, its largest annual count. American records also include 268 girls named August in 2025. Its contemporary rise follows a long period of much less frequent use.
Sources & methodologyReferences, data & attribution
Origins and cultural connections draw on the references below. American figures use the local SSA series for the exact spelling and sex, omitting counts below five. Existing Wiktionary material is available under CC BY-SA. Suggested shortenings are identified in the text.
How popular is August?
In 2025, August ranked #81 among boys in the United States, with 3,958 recorded uses. The U.S. birth records first list this spelling for boys in 1880; its largest annual count was 3,958 in 2025. Rankings count each spelling separately. They describe national use, so local familiarity can differ. The popularity chart shows whether the name has remained common, returned after a quieter period, or risen recently.