Augusta

About Augusta

Augusta is the feminine form of Augustus, a Latin name meaning “exalted” or “venerable.” It has a long association with European royalty and a substantial artistic namesake in sculptor Augusta Savage. The English pronunciation, aw-GUS-tuh, gives it three syllables with a strong central beat, while Gussie offers an established short form.

Meaning and Roman roots

Augustus developed from Latin augeo, “to increase,” and became an honorific associated with Rome’s first emperor, Octavian. Augusta is its feminine form, carrying the sense of dignity and elevation expressed by the masculine title.

The family includes masculine August and Augustus, German Auguste, and feminine Augusta. English Gussie draws on the middle of Augusta rather than its opening.

In English, the g is hard, as in go. Italian and German also stress the middle syllable, although the opening vowels differ. This gives Augusta a recognizable international form without an identical pronunciation in every language.

A royal name

Princess Augusta Sophia, born in 1768, was the sixth child and second daughter of King George III and Queen Charlotte. Her name is preserved in portraits and objects in the Royal Collection.

She was painted by artists including Thomas Gainsborough and William Beechey. A later portrait, dated around 1815–20, shows her with the elaborate bonnet and collar fashionable in that period.

The royal namesake gives Augusta a specific place in Georgian Britain. It also explains why the name can appear in histories of royal households and portraiture as well as in modern lists of given names.

Augusta Savage and sculpture

Augusta Savage was a sculptor and an influential teacher associated with the Harlem Renaissance. Her portrait bust Gamin helped her receive a Rosenwald fellowship to study in Paris in 1929.

After returning to New York, she established the Savage Studio of Arts and Crafts and later became the first director of the Harlem Community Art Center. Teaching and creating opportunities for other artists became a substantial part of her work.

For the 1939 New York World’s Fair, she created The Harp, a large sculptural group inspired by African American music. Its singers formed the strings of a harp, with the composition bringing a musical image into three dimensions.

The original plaster work was destroyed after the fair. Savage’s surviving sculptures and her teaching legacy nevertheless give Augusta a cultural connection extending well beyond its earlier royal associations.

American popularity

Augusta’s highest annual birth count for girls in the United States SSA series was 369 in 1915, when it ranked #304. The name later became much rarer.

It was recorded for 48 girls in 2000, 41 in 2010, and 49 in 2025. The recent count is therefore close to its level at the beginning of this century, leaving Augusta an uncommon American name with a much older classical, royal, and artistic history.

How popular is Augusta?

In 2025, Augusta ranked #3,215 among girls in the United States, with 49 recorded uses. The U.S. birth records first list this spelling for girls in 1880; its largest annual count was 369 in 1915. 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.