Autum
Feminine · “Latin autumnus”
The n in autumn is silent because scholars put it back. English had taken the word from French, where it had already been worn down, and sixteenth-century editors restored letters from the Latin originals: the b in debt and doubt, the c in indict, the s in island, the n in autumn. The pronunciation never followed.
How old is the name Autum?
Autum first appears in US birth records in 1971 — 54 years ago. The typical Autum alive today was born around 1999, making them about 26 years old. About 3,300 people named Autum are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Autum most popular?
Autum peaked in 1998, reaching #1242 nationally. Today it ranks #8362, 7,120 places below that high. See the whole 1998 chart.
Where it comes from
From autumnus to Autum
The story of Autum
The restored letters are one of the odder chapters in English spelling. Between roughly 1500 and 1650, editors and printers with classical training inserted letters into words to display their Latin ancestry, whether or not anyone had ever pronounced them. Dette became debt because of Latin debitum; doute became doubt because of dubitare; iland became island because of Latin insula, which is not even its source, since the word is native English. Some of the insertions eventually changed the pronunciation, which is why we now say perfect and fault with the consonants sounded; most did not. Autumn is one that did not. So the name spelled Autum is not an error against the historical form of the word; it is an error against a deliberate archaism that was itself imposed on a word that had already lost the letter.
Meaning
Latin autumnus, the season of harvest
From Latin autumnus, whose own derivation is uncertain and may be Etruscan. English took it through Old French autompne and it displaced the older English word harvest as the name of the season. Autum drops the silent n, which restores the spelling to what it was before the Renaissance editors intervened. It peaks in 1998.
How the name formed
- autumnus
- autompne
- Autumn
- Autum
Related forms: Autumn
Pronouncing Autum
AW-tum
Two syllables, stress on the first. Identical to the season; the missing n is silent in the standard spelling anyway, so Autum and Autumn are homophones.
Nicknames for Autum
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
- 1971
- Most girls named
- 1999143 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1242reached in 1998
- Change vs 2024
- +20.0%12 in 2025, from 10
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.
Autum in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Autumn in English — spelling variant
Autums among us
people named Autum are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 133,939 born in 2025 was named Autum
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 Katrice test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Autum's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Katrice climbed just as high around 1972, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Katrice's path sketches the road Autum is walking now.
Autum 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
Autum beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Autum in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- The word is familiar, concrete and pleasant.
- The spelling matches the pronunciation exactly.
- It is short and easy for a child to write.
- Autumn is the standard spelling and will be written by default.
- The missing letter will be read as a mistake.
- The name is heavily associated with the 1990s and 2000s.
Nobody names a baby alone.
Put Autum to the vote.
Add it to a family vote or a couple’s swipe deck — the other person gets one card, a simple answer and room to say why. No app, no account for them.
Only the people you invite can see your list.
Already decided on Autum? Hide it among decoys and let them guess.
What they receive
Someone added a name to your list
Autum
Feminine · #8362 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Autums are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 3,300 people named Autum are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Autum in 2025?
- Autum ranks #8362 among US girl names in 2025, with 12 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Autum?
- About 1 in every 133,939 US girls born in 2025 was named Autum — 12 in all.
- Will my child share the name Autum with classmates?
- Autum will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Autum
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Lona#8362 · Peggy#8362 · Leda#8362 · Margarette#8362 · Rella#8362 · Evalena#8362 · Vashti#8362 · Nona#8362
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Autum? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Autum and another name?
See them side by side — full stats, history and a gentle verdict.
Compare side by sideIn a hurry? Just pick a winner — one tap, no sign-up, and you see how everyone else voted.
Weighing a whole shortlist? Add the rest in the builder, or settle it with a bracket.
Cast your vote
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
No advertising trackers and no data sellinghow we handle your dataindependent and founder-run, about Name Battle