January
Wolf Moon
Named for wolves heard in deep winter. Read it as a call to protect your pack and your energy.
Also called Cold Moon, Ice Moon. Origin: Native American and Colonial.
Full moon names
Every full moon has a name
Wolf, Snow, Pink, Strawberry, Harvest. Each name records what the month meant to the people who kept the calendar, and each one still reads as a useful instruction.
February
Snow Moon
The heaviest snowfall month. A moon about scarcity, patience and rationing effort.
Also called Hunger Moon, Storm Moon. Origin: Native American.
March
Worm Moon
Thaw begins and the ground softens. Anything you buried is starting to move.
Also called Sap Moon, Crow Moon, Lenten Moon. Origin: Native American and English.
April
Pink Moon
Named for early wild phlox, not for colour in the sky. A fertility and first growth moon.
Also called Sprouting Grass Moon, Egg Moon, Paschal Moon. Origin: Native American.
May
Flower Moon
Peak bloom. Enjoyment counts as work in this cycle.
Also called Milk Moon, Corn Planting Moon. Origin: Native American and Old English.
June
Strawberry Moon
The short harvest window for wild strawberries. Take what is ripe now.
Also called Rose Moon, Hot Moon, Mead Moon. Origin: Algonquin.
July
Buck Moon
New antlers push through. A moon about visible growth and standing your ground.
Also called Thunder Moon, Hay Moon. Origin: Native American.
August
Sturgeon Moon
Fishing was easiest now. Abundance is available if you show up for it.
Also called Grain Moon, Green Corn Moon. Origin: Great Lakes tribes.
September
Harvest Moon
The full moon nearest the autumn equinox. Gather in, count what you have and stop planting.
Also called Corn Moon, Barley Moon. Origin: Northern European.
October
Hunter's Moon
Preparing for winter. A moon for stocking up and cutting what you cannot carry.
Also called Blood Moon, Falling Leaves Moon. Origin: Northern European.
November
Beaver Moon
Shelter building season. Fortify home, finances and rest.
Also called Frost Moon, Mourning Moon. Origin: Native American and Colonial.
December
Cold Moon
The longest nights of the year. A moon for stillness and honest review.
Also called Long Night Moon, Oak Moon. Origin: Mohawk and Old English.
Rarer moons you will hear about
Blue Moon
A second full moon inside one calendar month, or the third full moon in a season with four. It happens roughly every two and a half years, which is where the phrase once in a blue moon comes from. Treat it as bonus time on an intention you already set.
Supermoon
A full moon that lands near perigee, the closest point of the moon's orbit. It looks around seven percent wider and noticeably brighter. Feelings tend to run higher, so give decisions an extra day.
Micromoon
The opposite of a supermoon. The full moon falls near apogee, the furthest point, and reads smaller and dimmer. A quieter, more reflective full moon.
Blood Moon
The reddish colour of a total lunar eclipse, caused by sunlight bending through earth's atmosphere. Traditionally read as a hard reset rather than a gentle release.
Harvest Moon
The full moon closest to the autumn equinox, which is usually September but occasionally October. It rises unusually soon after sunset for several nights in a row.
Black Moon
A second new moon in a single calendar month. A rare, doubly dark beginning and a good moment for an intention you did not manage to set the first time.
Common questions
- Where do the full moon names come from?
- Most of the names in common use come from Native American, Colonial American and Old English seasonal calendars, popularised in North America through almanacs. They describe what was happening on the land in that month rather than anything in the sky.
- What is a blue moon?
- A blue moon is a second full moon inside one calendar month, or the third full moon in a season that has four. It is not a colour.
- Why is the harvest moon special?
- The harvest moon is the full moon nearest the autumn equinox. Around that date the moon rises only a short time later each evening, giving several nights of early moonlight, which historically extended the working day at harvest.
- Is a supermoon actually bigger?
- It is closer, not bigger. A supermoon sits near perigee and appears roughly seven percent wider and about fifteen percent brighter than an average full moon.
What this page covers
Every full moon of the year carries a traditional name, and this page lists them with the month they belong to and the meaning behind each one. The material below is the plain version. Where two traditions disagree, the more widely used reading comes first and the alternative after it.
Most of the names in common use come from farming and hunting calendars in North America and Europe, where the moon marked the work of the month rather than a mood.
Bring a question with you. Find the date, name or sign you came for in the tables above, read the short interpretation beside it, and skip the rest. A reference page earns its place by being quick to use rather than long to read.
How the readings here are worked out
A year with thirteen full moons produces a blue moon, which is why the list occasionally runs one name short of the calendar.
We read dates from the event itself. Calendars round for convenience, and that rounding is the usual reason two references clash.
Older and newer schools disagree in places. Where they do, the widely taught version leads and the variant is mentioned rather than buried.
Reading the full moon names in context
The name tells you what the month was for, so reading it next to the moon phase for the same week gives you both the season and the stage of the cycle.
One reading is an opinion, two that agree is a pattern. Cross checking costs a minute and saves a lot of overinterpretation.
If a reading feels flat, that is information too. A system that always has something to say is not being honest with you.
Using the full moon names day to day
Names sit alongside the moon calendar and the phase pages, which handle the exact dates and the illumination for any given day.
Check it before you need it rather than after, since most of the value is in planning rather than explaining something that already happened.
Use my report as the place your notes collect. Reading them back a month later is the real test.
Common mistakes people make
A tendency is not a rule. Readers who take a description as a fixed boundary get the least out of material like this.
Readers who only keep the pleasant sentences end up with a horoscope rather than a description.
Shopping for agreement across the library defeats the point. Choose the page that fits the question and close the rest. If you want to carry this further, look at moon calendar, moon phase today and moon phase by birthday.
Where this sits in the wider system
Every family on the site overlaps with the others, which is what makes cross checking possible at all.
Pair this with the angel number library for repeated numbers, the dream dictionary for images, and the calculators for dates.
If you would rather ask than browse, the AI astrologer takes a plain question and answers it against the details you give it.
Questions this page answers well
The strength of a reference page is precision on small factual questions rather than depth on large ones.
Broad questions need two or three related pages read together, and even then the honest answer is a theme rather than a conclusion.
Anything that needs a professional belongs with a professional, even when a reading seems to speak directly to the situation.
How we keep this page accurate
Keep the parts that match your experience and drop the rest. A reading that has to be forced is the wrong reading.
The figures are rebuilt from source each time the site is built, so a stale date fails the build rather than reaching the page.
The editorial team page explains how entries are written and reviewed, and about covers the sources.
Questions