Auburn
Masculine · “reddish brown”
Auburn is given to both — 728 boys and 1,337 girls since 1880. See Auburn as a girl 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 1890 — 135 years ago. The typical Auburn alive today was born around 1935, making them about 90 years old. About 300 people named Auburn are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Auburn most popular?
Auburn peaked in 1890, reaching #994 nationally. Today it ranks #12008, 11,014 places below that high. See the whole 1890 chart.
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
- 1890
- Most boys named
- 192523 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #994reached in 1890
- Change vs 2024
- −16.7%5 in 2025, from 6
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.
Auburns among us
people named Auburn are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 341,615 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
Fashion outlook
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
Auburn beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Auburn in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys 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.
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What they receive
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Auburn
Masculine · #12008 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 300 people named Auburn are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Auburn in 2025?
- Auburn ranks #12008 among US boy names in 2025, with 5 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Auburn?
- About 1 in every 341,615 US boys born in 2025 was named Auburn — 5 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.
Garfield#12008 · Chas#12008 · Lew#12008 · Barney#12008 · Dewitt#12008 · Granville#12008 · Cicero#12008 · Willam#12008
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Auburn? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Auburn and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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