Autumn
A feminine name derived from the Latin word for the fall season.
Name Census estimates that about 139,646 living Americans carry the first name Autumn. It sits at #79 in the overall ranking, outside the top 50 but still well-represented. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Autumn today is around 22 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Autumn births was 1998 (4,214 babies). In terms of living bearers, it sits close to Chris (139,464).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Autumn. Below you will find a gender breakdown showing how the name splits between male and female registrations, a year-by-year popularity chart stretching back to 1880, decade-level totals, the top US states for this name, its meaning and etymology, and a set of frequently asked questions with data-backed answers.
For a British comparison, Name Census UK has a UK baby-name profile for Autumn with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Although Autumn is used almost entirely for girls, the SSA data does show 330 boys registered with the name since 1880.
People living today
140K
~ 1 in 2,454 Americans
Peak year
1998
4,214 babies that year
Average age
22
years old
2024 SSA rank
#79
Tracked since 1910
Census
Autumn in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 110,880 people with the first name Autumn, which placed it at #508 in the published first-name tables. This is a snapshot of people who already had the name at the time of the Census.
The SSA sections elsewhere on this page answer a different question: how often parents gave the name to babies over time. The "people living today" figure on this page is different again: it is a current estimate built from SSA birth records and age-based survival rates, so the two numbers are not expected to match exactly.
2020 Census rank
#508
National first-name rank
People counted
111K
110,880 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
36.7
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
72.3% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Autumn
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Autumn is White at 72.3%. The next largest groups are Black (11.2%) and Hispanic (7.4%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself.
The bar chart below shows how people with the first name Autumn described their own race and ethnicity on the 2020 Census form. The Census Bureau groups responses into six broad categories: White, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Asian and Pacific Islander, American Indian and Alaska Native, and Two or More Races. When a category has too few respondents for a given name, the Bureau suppresses the figure to protect individual privacy, which is why some names show fewer than six slices.
Percentages are shown so the breakdown is easy to read across every published category. Because the 2020 Census first-name file also includes raw headcounts for each group, Name Census can show those alongside the percentages in the legend and hover tooltip.
Keep in mind that these are self-reported numbers. A first name does not determine a person's race or ethnicity, and the distribution you see here reflects the specific population who happened to carry the name Autumn at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White72.3% · 80,164
- Black or African American11.2% · 12,378
- Hispanic or Latino7.4% · 8,197
- Two or more races6.6% · 7,313
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.4% · 1,598
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.1% · 1,230
Gender
Gender distribution for Autumn
Out of the 143,464 babies given the name Autumn since 1880, 99.8% were registered as female. The name sits firmly on the female side of the spectrum, with only a handful of male registrations across the entire dataset.
Autumn as a male name
- Ranked #9,981 in 2024
- 7 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2004 (28 births)
Autumn as a female name
- Ranked #79 in 2024
- 3,030 female births in 2024
- Peak: 1998 (4,208 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Autumn appears almost entirely female. Of the 110,887 people counted with this name, 99.8% were female and only a very small share were male.
Popularity
Autumn: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Autumn from the 1910s through to the 2020s, spanning 12 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 38,605 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2000s peak, Autumn remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Autumn by decade
The table below breaks the full SSA timeline into ten-year windows. Each row shows how many male and female babies were given the name Autumn during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Autumns live
The SSA's state-level files cover 51 states and territories. California, Texas, Michigan recorded the most babies named Autumn, while Hawaii, Vermont, District of Columbia recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 2,775 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Autumn
The name Autumn is a modern English word derived from the Latin word "autumnus", which means "the fall season". It is believed to have originated from the Proto-Indo-European root "au-" meaning "to become cool or dry". The name itself did not come into use until the 16th century, when it began to be used as a symbolic name representing the fall season.
The earliest recorded use of Autumn as a given name dates back to the late 16th century. One of the earliest known bearers of the name was Autumn Bradstreet, an English poet born in 1612. She was one of the first published writers in the British North American colonies and is considered an important figure in the history of American literature.
In the 17th century, the name Autumn gained some popularity among Puritan families in colonial New England, who often chose names with symbolic meanings inspired by nature or the seasons. One notable bearer from this time was Autumn Hayne, born in 1667 in Massachusetts Bay Colony, who later became a respected midwife and herbalist.
The name remained relatively uncommon until the late 20th century, when it experienced a surge in popularity, likely influenced by the increasing trend of using nature-inspired names. One of the most famous bearers of the name was Autumn Jackson, an American actress born in 1976, known for her roles in several popular films and television shows.
Another notable figure with the name Autumn was Autumn Graves, an American artist and sculptor born in 1935, who was celebrated for her large-scale public art installations and environmental sculptures. Her works can be found in museums and public spaces across the United States.
In the world of literature, Autumn Deshields was an African American writer and poet born in 1962, whose works explored themes of identity, race, and the African American experience. Her poetry collections, including "Autumn Leaves" and "Autumn's Embrace", received critical acclaim and numerous awards.
While the name Autumn was initially associated with the fall season and nature, it has since transcended its symbolic roots and is now widely used as a given name for both literary and personal reasons, reflecting the changing attitudes towards naming conventions over time.
People
Autumn + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Autumn as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with A
Other first names starting with A with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Autumn: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Autumn?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 139,646 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Autumn going back to 1880 and adjusting each cohort for expected survival using CDC actuarial life tables. The result is an age-weighted living-bearer count, not a raw birth total. That works out to about 1 in 2,454 US residents.
Is Autumn a common name?
We classify Autumn as "Common". It ranks above 99.6% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 143,464 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Autumn most popular?
The single biggest year for Autumn was 1998, when 4,214 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Autumn is about 22 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Autumn in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 110,880 people with the name Autumn, or 36.71 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #508 in the national Census ranking for first names.
Why is the Census count different from the living estimate?
Because they measure different things. The Census figure is a count of people who had the name Autumn in 2020. The living estimate aims to answer a current question instead: how many people with the name are alive today, based on SSA birth records and age-based survival rates. Since one number is a 2020 snapshot and the other is a present-day estimate, they are not expected to be identical.
What does the Census say about the gender split for Autumn?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Autumn appears almost entirely female. Of the 110,887 people counted with this name, 99.8% were female and only a very small share were male. The Census view is a snapshot of people living with the name in 2020, while the SSA section above tracks births across time.
What does the Census say about the background of people named Autumn?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Autumn is White at 72.3%. The next largest groups are Black (11.2%) and Hispanic (7.4%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself. The percentages in the chart above come from self-reported race and Hispanic-origin responses in the 2020 Census.
Which group reports the name Autumn most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Autumn in the 2020 Census, accounting for 72.3% (80,164 people in the published table).
Why can the Census sex total and race total differ slightly?
The Census Bureau published separate 2020 tables for sex and for race/Hispanic origin, and the released figures can differ slightly because of privacy protection in the public files. That is why this page treats the gender section and the race/origin section as two related snapshots instead of forcing them into one identical total.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only includes names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files have no Census demographic snapshot. When that happens, the SSA trend, gender history, and state sections still appear, but the 2020 Census demographic sections are omitted.
What does the SSA popularity chart show?
The chart tracks births, not the number of people alive with the name today. Each point shows how many babies were given the name Autumn in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Autumn a female name?
Yes, 99.8% of people registered as Autumn in the SSA data are female. You can see the full per-sex comparison in the gender distribution section above, which includes the latest year rank, birth count, and peak year for each sex.
Is Autumn still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Autumn in 2024, and the page above shows its latest-year rank where available. A name can be well past its peak and still remain in steady use, especially if it built up a large population over earlier decades.
Why can a name have a lot of living bearers even if it is not trendy now?
Because living-bearer counts and current baby-name popularity measure different things. A name like Autumn can build up a very large population over many decades, even if fewer parents are choosing it now than they did at its peak.
Where does this data come from?
First-name figures come from the Social Security Administration's national baby name files, which cover every name on a birth certificate from 1880 to 2024. Living-bearer estimates layer in CDC actuarial life tables broken out by sex to account for mortality. The population baseline (342,754,338) is the Census Bureau's latest national estimate. You can read the full calculation on our methodology page.
How many people have the name Autumn?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.