In Taylor Swift’s “august,” the narrator is yearning for a boy named James.
The song is part of Folklore’s fictional teenage love triangle involving James, Betty, and the unnamed narrator of “august.” James is already connected to Betty, but he has a summer romance with the narrator before returning to Betty.
Swift described the song as being told from the perspective of a girl in an undefined relationship. She imagined the narrator’s name as Augusta or Augustine, but the song itself never gives her a definite name.
This creates a common mix-up: August is not the narrator’s confirmed name. It is the month associated with the romance and the song’s title. James and Betty are explicitly named elsewhere in the three-song storyline.