James is the boy in the fictional summer romance described in Taylor Swift’s “August.”
The narrator of “August” falls for James during a brief summer relationship. James is already connected to Betty, and after the summer ends he reconciles with her. That makes “August” the perspective of the third person in the love triangle rather than James’s own account.
The storyline continues across three Folklore songs. “Cardigan” is associated with Betty, while “Betty” is told from James’s perspective. The narrator of “August” is not named in the lyrics or formally identified by Swift. Swift said she privately thought of the character as Augusta or Augustine, but those are descriptions of the narrator, not the boy. This distinction explains why James is the single canonical answer.