Fall Baby Names: 45 Autumn-Inspired Names for Girls and Boys

Fall is a lovely season to have a baby, and a lot of parents with an autumn due date want a name that carries a little of it: crisp leaves, a warm fire, a harvest table. The good news is that you don't have to name your baby Autumn to get there. There are tree names, red and gold names, fireside names and harvest names, and many of them are among the fastest-growing names in the country.

As with all our lists, every meaning in the tables below comes from our name database, and every name links to a page that shows its source and its full popularity history. A few of the most obvious "fall names" have a debated origin in our data, so we've given them their own section near the end rather than repeating a meaning we can't confirm.

Tree and woodland names

Nothing says autumn like trees turning color, so this is the biggest group. These names either mean a specific tree or describe a place in the woods.

Hazel ("hazel tree") is the standout. Hazelnuts ripen in early autumn, and the name has had one of the great comebacks of the last 30 years: 2,068 girls got it in 1940, just 162 in 1995 and 6,318 in 2025, when it ranked #21. Willow ("willow tree") and Juniper ("juniper tree; youthful") have followed a similar path. Juniper went from 745 girls in 2015 to 2,618 in 2025, its highest count ever.

Olivia ("olive tree") might surprise you on a fall list, but olives are harvested in autumn and early winter around the Mediterranean. It was the #1 girls' name in the U.S. in 2025, so it's a good pick if you want a seasonal meaning hidden inside a familiar name. Daphne ("laurel tree") comes from the Greek myth in which Daphne is turned into a laurel. It reached its highest count yet in 2025, with 1,740 girls.

Oakley ("oak meadow") and Oaklyn ("oak" + "woodland clearing, glade") are for parents who love the image of acorns underfoot. Oakley is given to both sexes, about 1,900 girls and 700 boys in 2025. Ilan ("tree, oak tree", from Hebrew) is a rarer choice for a boy, at 124 babies.

Ashton and Ashley both start with the ash tree. Ashley is a name parents of the 1980s and 90s will know well: it peaked in 1987 with 54,856 girls and was down to 1,829 in 2025, which makes it feel fresh again to some. Delaney ("from the alder grove") is a warm Irish-sounding pick in the middle of the charts.

For a boy, Forrest ("of the woods") has climbed back from 391 boys in 2015 to 850 in 2025. Sylvester ("woody, rural") is the vintage option, and Sylvia ("of the forest") is its girls' counterpart, rising for the third year in a row to 1,017 girls.

Red, gold and amber names

Autumn color is mostly red, orange and gold, and a handful of names carry those colors in their meaning.

Rory ("red king", Irish) is one of the most useful names on this list because it works for any baby. In 2025 it was given to 1,768 boys and about 1,330 girls, and the boys' count was the highest ever. Ruby ("red gemstone") has been remarkably steady, given to more than 3,300 girls every year since 2014. Rufus simply means "red" in Latin; it was given to just 27 boys in 2025, so it's a genuinely rare choice.

Aurelia ("golden") is the gold-leaf name, and it's rising quickly: 353 girls in 2015, 1,056 in 2025. The boys' form, Aurelian, first appeared in the SSA data in 2017 and was given to 25 boys in 2025. Orla ("golden princess") is a short Irish name that's still rare in the U.S., at 70 girls in 2025.

Amber is a color name for most people, but its source meaning is "ambergris", from Arabic. It was a top name in the 1980s and is much rarer now, which may suit you if you want an autumn color that isn't in every classroom.

Fireside names

Shorter days mean candles, bonfires and evenings by the fire. These names are built on words for fire.

Aiden ("little fire", Irish) and Aidan ("fire", Scottish Gaelic) are the best known. Aiden was one of the defining names of the 2000s, peaking in 2009 with 16,030 boys, and it's now settling at a gentler 5,046. Ayden is the same name with a modern spelling. Keegan means "son of Aidan", so it's a fire name once removed.

Harvey combines "iron" and "blazing" in Old Breton. It's a vintage name that has doubled since 2015 (697 boys then, 1,381 in 2025).

Harvest, field and gratitude names

Fall is harvest time, and in the U.S. it ends with Thanksgiving on the fourth Thursday of November. These names mean fruitful, blessed or grateful, or describe farmland.

Theodore ("gift of God") is the headline name here and one of the biggest names in the country: #4 for boys in 2025, with 13,355 babies, up from 4,155 in 2015. Theodora is the girls' form and is much rarer, at 384. If you're expecting a baby around Thanksgiving, a name that means "gift" is hard to beat.

Benedict ("blessed, well spoken of") has doubled since 2015 and hit its highest count in 2025, with 305 boys. Ephraim ("fruitful", from Hebrew) is a biblical name with a harvest meaning, and Shakur ("thankful, grateful", from Arabic) is about as close as a name gets to the spirit of Thanksgiving.

Blair ("plain, field", Scottish) is one of the fastest-rising names on this list, from 484 girls in 2015 to 1,806 in 2025. Hayden ("hay valley") and Hailey ("hay meadow") both describe farmland, and both were more popular a decade ago than they are now.

October, November and fall flower names

Some parents want the calendar itself in the name.

October and November are real, if rare, given names: 40 girls were named October and 37 were named November in 2025. Their meanings are a small history lesson. October means "eighth month" and November "ninth month", because the early Roman calendar began in March. Octavia ("eighth") is the more wearable version of the same idea, and it jumped from 175 girls in 2015 to 982 in 2025.

For flower lovers, Dahlia (named after the botanist Anders Dahl), Aster and Heather all bloom from late summer into fall. Dahlia is the popular one, at 1,420 girls in 2025. Aster is the rare pick, and Heather, which peaked in 1975, is now given to fewer than 200 girls a year.

Popular fall names with a debated origin

Several names you'll see on every fall list are marked "origin debated" in our data. They're lovely names, and plenty of families choose them for their autumn feel. We just don't print a meaning for them as fact.

Autumn is the obvious one. Its appeal needs no explanation, but our data marks the name's etymology as debated. It's also less popular than you might expect: Autumn peaked in 1998 with 4,208 girls and was given to 2,805 in 2025. Rowan shares its name with the rowan tree, whose red berries ripen in late summer and autumn, and it's the most-given name in this section, with 5,212 boys and about 1,240 girls in 2025.

Ember, Scarlett and Sienna are popular for their warm, fiery associations, and Silas is often listed as meaning "of the forest", which our data can't confirm. Marigold is a fall-blooming flower name that rose from 67 girls in 2015 to 498 in 2025. Opal is one of October's birthstones. If you love one of these, choose it for the sound and the season rather than for a meaning on a print.

Fall names by the numbers

Here's how some of the names in this article have moved over the last decade, using the SSA's national files for the sex that most often gets each name.

The pattern is clear: the names rising fastest are the ones that suggest the season without naming it. Tree names, gold names and gentle vintage names are climbing, while the most literal fall name, Autumn, and the 2000s favorite Aiden are falling.

How to choose a fall name you'll still love in July

A seasonal name is a sweet idea, but your child will have it all year round. A few things we'd think about:

1. Decide how seasonal you want to be. October and Autumn say "fall" loudly. Hazel, Rory and Theodore whisper it. There's no wrong answer, but it helps to know which you're after before you start a shortlist.
2. Check the popularity curve, not just the rank. Theodore, Hazel and Rowan are near the top of the charts and still climbing, so expect classmates with the same name. Rufus, Orla and Ilan are rare. Every name page shows the full SSA history.
3. Use the season in the middle. If October or Ember feels like too much as a first name, it can be a beautiful middle name: Clara October, James Forrest.
4. Say it with your surname. Many fall names end in a vowel sound or a soft consonant (Hazel, Willow, Aurelia), which can run together with some surnames. Try the full name tester to hear your full name, initials and flow.
5. Think about siblings. Fall names pair well with other nature names: Hazel and Forrest, Juniper and Rowan, Ruby and Rory. If you want more ideas in that style, our name generator suggests names that fit your last name and your family.

Stuck between two finalists? A name bracket settles it head-to-head, and a shortlist lets family vote by link. For more meaning-based lists, see baby names that mean light and baby names that mean strong. Still waiting to find out exactly when baby will arrive? Our due date calculator gives you the date and trimester milestones.

Making a fall name part of the welcome

A seasonal name gives you a ready-made theme for everything that comes next:

• Birth announcements in warm rust, gold and sage, with a line like "Hazel, named for the hazel tree, born October 12."
• Nursery wall art with the name and its meaning, such as "Aurelia: golden" or "Theodore: gift of God".
• Thank-you cards after a fall baby shower, in the same colors and style.

The Baby Kit puts the name, meaning and origin on all of these at once, in the style and palette you pick, so the whole set matches.

Sources

• Meanings: our name database, built from sourced etymologies. Entries marked "Wiktionary" are adapted from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0). Each name page links its source entry, and our sources page explains the method.
• Popularity: U.S. Social Security Administration baby name data, 1940 to 2025. Names given to fewer than five babies of one sex in a year aren't published by the SSA.