August hit its all-time SSA peak in 2024 at rank 88. The name didn't enter the U.S. top 200 until 2014. In just a decade it climbed from rank 200 to top 90, which is the kind of vertical takeoff that almost always traces to a single cultural moment. In August's case, the moment is identifiable: the convergence of Mad Men's August von Moselheim, the Wonder novel and film (2017), and the broader vintage-revival wave.
The Roman emperor and the month
August comes from the Latin Augustus, meaning "venerable" or "majestic" — the title given to Roman emperors starting with Augustus Caesar (63 BCE - 14 CE), the first Roman emperor. The eighth month of the year was renamed in his honour in 8 BCE, which is how a personal title became a common English word.
The German form August has been a steady masculine name in Northern Europe for centuries, particularly in Germany, Sweden, and Denmark. American usage was modest through the 19th and 20th centuries, primarily among German-American families. The 2010s revival is a separate phenomenon — driven less by heritage than by parents seeking a vintage, intellectual-sounding alternative to standard biblical and surname picks.
The Wonder effect and the vintage cluster
R.J. Palacio's novel Wonder (2012) features a protagonist named August Pullman, called Auggie. The 2017 film adaptation gave the name unprecedented mainstream American visibility, particularly among parents of school-age children who read the book to their kids. Naming-forum discussion of August spiked during both the book's peak and the film's release.
August sits in the broader vintage-revival cluster alongside Atticus, Arthur, Theodore, and Oliver. Two syllables (AW-gust), strong consonant frame, and a name that reads as deliberately literary. The nickname Auggie is well-established and provides a casual exit ramp.
The counter-reading: is August too literary?
One critique of August is that the name has become aesthetic shorthand for a specific upper-middle-class American naming sensibility — vintage-revival, literary-coded, signalling specific cultural taste. The Wonder association reinforces this read, since the book is firmly inside the educated-parenting recommendation canon.
For parents in 2025, the literary coding is mostly an asset. August reads as deliberately classical without being stuffy, and the name wears well across age ranges. Common pairings on naming forums lean toward shorter middles: August James, August Cole, August Wolf. Parents weighing August against Arthur often pick August for its slightly cooler register and the Roman imperial association. The 2020s data shows August still climbing.