Auburn
Feminine · “reddish brown”
Auburn is given to both — 1,337 girls and 728 boys since 1880. See Auburn as a boy nameSee other names given to both
Auburn used to mean blond. It comes from Latin albus, white, and in medieval English it described pale or yellowish hair. Then it got tangled with brown in the spelling — people wrote it abrune and abroun — and by the sixteenth century the word had changed sides completely.
How old is the name Auburn?
Auburn first appears in US birth records in 1920 — 105 years ago. The typical Auburn alive today was born around 2006, making them about 19 years old. About 1,300 people named Auburn are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Auburn most popular?
Auburn peaked in 1996, reaching #2849 nationally. Today it ranks #4352, 1,503 places below that high. See the whole 1996 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From albus to Auburn
The story of Auburn
This is one of the clearest cases of a word changing meaning because of how it was written. Alburnus meant off-white, and the Old French form was used of fair hair. English borrowed it, spelled it in a dozen ways including abrune and abroun, and readers who met those spellings took the second syllable for brown. The color drifted, and by Shakespeare's time auburn was a shade of red-brown, which is what it has meant ever since. The name has a separate cause: Goldsmith's poem The Deserted Village opens by addressing Sweet Auburn, and the poem was so widely read that American settlers named towns after it — which is where Auburn, New York and Auburn, Alabama came from.
Meaning
reddish brown — but originally whitish
Through Old French auborne from Latin alburnus, whitish, from albus, white. English shifted the meaning to reddish-brown between the fifteenth and seventeenth centuries, apparently through confusion with brown in the spelling. The reversal is documented and complete.
How the name formed
- albus
- alburnus
- auborne
- auburn
Pronouncing Auburn
AW-burn
Two syllables, stress on the first, exactly as the color word is said. There is nothing ambiguous anywhere in the spelling.
Nicknames for Auburn
Moderate
What the data says
146 years of official birth records
The long climb, and where it stands now
The same years in position rather than babies
- First recorded
- 1920
- Most girls named
- 201552 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #2849reached in 1996
- Change vs 2024
- +33.3%32 in 2025, from 24
Rank is a position, a count is a headcount, and they move independently — a name can hold its rank while the number of babies behind it falls. Source: U.S. Social Security Administration.
Auburn in other languages
Auburns among us
people named Auburn are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 50,227 born in 2025 was named Auburn
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Janalyn test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Auburn's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Janalyn climbed just as high around 1949, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Janalyn's path sketches the road Auburn is walking now.
Auburn sits in the calm middle of the cycle — neither chasing a wave nor sliding off one. Middle-of-the-cycle names age slowly and predictably.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Where Auburn is headed
Auburn is easing off slowly — about 16% fewer babies a year by 2030 if the trend continues.
Medium confidence — fitted on official counts through 2025.
A damped-trend projection of the official birth data — a sketch of momentum, not a promise. Every name's forecast, ranked.
Auburn beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Auburn in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- A documented meaning that names a color anyone can point at.
- It serves either child, and the record shows a real minority of boys.
- Two syllables that everyone can already say and spell.
- It is a hair color, and the child may not have it.
- It is a university and a football program in Alabama, and that association is strong in the South.
- The minority of boys carrying it will be misread on forms.
Nobody names a baby alone.
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What they receive
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Auburn
Feminine · #4352 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Auburns are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 1,300 people named Auburn are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Auburn in 2025?
- Auburn ranks #4352 among US girl names in 2025, with 32 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Auburn?
- About 1 in every 50,227 US girls born in 2025 was named Auburn — 32 in all.
- Will my child share the name Auburn with classmates?
- Auburn will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Auburn
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Sigrid#4352 · Adel#4352 · Lovella#4352 · Kaysha#4352 · Arissa#4352 · Joseline#4352 · Yajaira#4352 · Elma#4352
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Auburn? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Auburn and another name?
See them side by side — full stats, history and a gentle verdict.
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Which one would you pick?
Your gut first, the numbers after — the split shows once you pick.
US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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