Full moon names by month

Where the full moon names come from

The names in the table are the ones you see in news stories every month: Wolf Moon, Snow Moon, Worm Moon and so on. They were popularized in the 20th century by the Old Farmer's Almanac and the Maine Farmers' Almanac, which published a list in the 1930s. The almanacs describe the names as coming from Algonquin and other Native American peoples of the northeast and Great Lakes, together with names used by colonial Americans and older European names such as the Moon before Yule.

That story is partly true and partly tidied up. Many Native nations did keep lunar months with descriptive names, but they spoke dozens of languages, lived in very different climates and used far more names than one per month, and the same month could have different names a few hundred miles apart. The single neat list is an almanac compilation. The other names we give on each full moon page, such as the Ojibwe Sugar Moon or the Lakota Moon When the Ducks Come Back, follow the almanac's attributions, which have been gathered from a range of sources over the years.

What is certain is that every name describes the season in the northern temperate zone, mostly eastern North America: snow, thawing ground, flowers, strawberries, harvests, hunting and the cold. None describes how the Moon itself looks. A Pink Moon is not pink and a Strawberry Moon is not red.

How each full moon gets its name

• By month. The full moon in each calendar month takes that month's name. We use the month in UTC, the usual convention, so a full moon late on the last evening of a month in the Americas can belong to the next month in Europe and Asia.
• Harvest Moon. The full moon closest to the September equinox. In 2026 the equinox is on September 23 and the Harvest Moon is on September 26; in 2027 the equinox is on September 23 and the Harvest Moon is on September 15. When the Harvest Moon falls in October, the September full moon is called the Corn Moon.
• Hunter's Moon. The full moon after the Harvest Moon. In 2026 it is the Hunter's Moon on October 26.
• Blue Moon. The second full moon in a calendar month, as on May 31, 2026, or the third of four full moons in an astronomical season (May 20, 2027).
• Supermoon and micromoon are not names but labels for how close the Moon is. See supermoons.

The Harvest and Hunter's Moons are special

Most of the time the Moon rises about 50 minutes later each night. Around the autumn equinox, though, the Moon's path meets the eastern horizon at a shallow angle in the evening, so the full moon and the nights after it rise only 20 to 30 minutes later at mid-northern latitudes, and even less in Canada and northern Europe. For several evenings in a row a bright Moon comes up soon after sunset. Before electric light that mattered: it gave farmers and hunters extra hours of light to bring in crops and game. The pages for each of these moons show the actual moonrise times for your city.

Full moon names in other cultures

Many calendars around the world are lunar or lunisolar, so the full moon is a fixed point in them and often has its own name:

• Hindu calendar: each full moon (Purnima) is named after its lunar month, and many are festivals: Guru Purnima in Ashadha, Raksha Bandhan on Shravan Purnima, Sharad Purnima in Ashwin, Kartik Purnima and Holi on Phalguna Purnima.
• Sri Lanka: every full moon is a public holiday called Poya, each with its own name and story: Duruthu, Navam, Medin, Bak, Vesak, Poson, Esala, Nikini, Binara, Vap, Il and Unduvap.
• Chinese calendar: months start at new moon, so the 15th day is full moon. The Lantern Festival falls on the first full moon of the year and the Mid-Autumn Festival on the full moon of the eighth month.
• Jewish calendar: also lunisolar, with Passover, Sukkot, Tu BiShvat and Tu B'Av on the 15th of their months, at full moon.
• Islamic calendar: purely lunar, with months starting at the first sighting of the crescent. The 13th to 15th of each month, around full moon, are traditionally called the white days.
• Theravada Buddhism: Thailand, Myanmar, Laos and Cambodia mark the great full moons of the year with festivals such as Makha Bucha, Visakha Bucha, Asalha Bucha and Loy Krathong.

Names such as Quiet Moon or Mourning Moon that you may see attributed to Celtic tradition come from modern books, not from early Irish or Welsh sources.

In the Southern Hemisphere

The almanac names follow the northern seasons, so they make little sense in Australia, New Zealand, South Africa or South America. Many people there shift the names by six months, calling the full moon nearest the March equinox the Harvest Moon and the April one the Hunter's Moon, and the June full moon a Cold Moon. Some Aboriginal Australian and Maori traditions have their own moon names and calendars tied to local seasons.

Related: Next full moon · Is it a full moon tonight? · Blood moon and lunar eclipses · Moon phase today