August

6,243 people in the United States were counted with the surname August in the 2020 census, making it the 5,394th most common in the country. That is about one person in 47,900.

By the numbers

People: 6,243
Rank: 5,394th
How common: 1 in 47,900
Per 100,000: 2.1

Where the name comes from

Origin Latin

In some cases a month name from English. In other cases inspired by the common German given name August, from Latin Augustus.

Etymology from Wiktionary, used under CC BY-SA 4.0.

Who bears the name

How people with the surname August described their own race and Hispanic origin at the 2020 census:

White, not Hispanic 62.3%
Black, not Hispanic 27.2%
Hispanic or Latino 5.0%
Two or more races, not Hispanic 3.7%
Asian or Pacific Islander, not Hispanic 1.5%
American Indian or Alaska Native, not Hispanic 0.4%

Notable people called August

Pernilla August (born 1958)Swedish actress and film director
Bille August (born 1948)Danish film director
Alba August (born 1993)Swedish actress, born 1993
Prince August, 3rd Prince of Koháry (1818–1881)German prince
John August (born 1970)American film director and screenwriter
Edwin August (1883–1964)actor, Film director, Screenwriter

People named August with articles in the most Wikipedia languages. Data from Wikidata (CC0).

Surnames like August

Also a first name

August has been given to 74,452 American babies as a first name since 1880, peaking in 2025. See it as a given name.

Try it on yourself

Source: US Census Bureau, Frequently Occurring Surnames, 2020. The Census describes the file as the surnames borne by 100 or more people; rarer names are not published. The line is not quite exact, and 617 published names come in under it, the smallest at 92 people. Race and Hispanic origin are self-reported. Rates are worked out against the 298.9 million people the file's own figures are calculated on, which is fewer than the census counted in all: the difference is everyone whose surname was too rare to publish.