James is the boy sought by the narrator of Taylor Swift’s “August.” In the Folklore story, he is 17 and has a brief summer romance with the unnamed female narrator before returning to Betty.
The song is one part of a three-track narrative spread across “Cardigan,” “August,” and “Betty.” “Cardigan” presents Betty’s perspective, “Betty” presents James’s perspective, and “August” portrays the girl involved with James during the summer.
Fans sometimes call the narrator Augustine or Augusta, but Swift did not give her a definitive name in the song. Those names are descriptions Swift used in her own thoughts, while James and Betty are the explicitly named figures in the central triangle.