Wolf Moon Name Origin


What is a Wolf Moon? In January, amid the cold and deep snows of midwinter, the wolf packs howled hungrily outside Native American villages. Thus, the villagers began calling January’s full moon the Wolf Moon.

Wolf Moon Name Variations

The Wolf Moon was sometimes referred to as the Old Moon or the Moon After Yule. Some tribes called January’s full moon the Snow Moon, but most tribes applied that name to February’s full moon.

When is the next Wolf Moon?

The Wolf Moon dates are expressed in Coordinated Universal Time (UT), the international basis for other time zones. Since the lunar month is only 29 days long on the average, the full moon dates shift from year to year. For Wolf Moon times in your city, please use the Time Zone Converter. You may also simply subtract five (5) hours to get to U.S. Eastern Time.

Full MoonYearDateTimeDay
Wolf Moon2011Jan 1921:21Wed
Wolf Moon2012Jan 907:30Mon
Wolf Moon2013Jan 2704:38Sun
Wolf Moon2014Jan 1604:52Thu
Wolf Moon2015Jan 504:53Mon
Wolf Moon2016Jan 2401:46Sun
Wolf Moon2017Jan 1211:34Thu
Wolf Moon2018Jan 202:24Tue
Wolf Moon2019Jan 2105:16Mon
Wolf Moon2020Jan 1019:21Mon

Popular Full Moon Names

The naming of the Wolf Moon has a pretty interesting history. Do you want to learn about other Full Moon names? If so, check out the following full moon names: Wolf Moon, Snow Moon, Worm Moon, Pink Moon, Flower Moon, Strawberry Moon, Buck Moon, Sturgeon Moon, Harvest Moon, Hunters Moon, Beaver Moon, Cold Moon, and, of course, the Blue Moon!

Popular Full Moon Calendars

Some popular full moon calendars, in addition to the Wolf Moon Calendar, include the following: Moon Calendar 2011, Moon Calendar 2012, Moon Calendar 2013, Moon Calendar 2014, Moon Calendar 2015, Moon Calendar 2016, Moon Calendar 2017, Moon Calendar 2018, Moon Calendar 2019, Moon Calendar 2020.

You can also check out our Full Moon Calendar, Lunar Calendar, Lunar Eclipse Calendar and Solar Eclipse Calendar!

Full Moon Names History

Wolf Moon

Wolf Moon (January)

Full Moon names have been used by many cultures to describe the full moon throughout the year. Specifically, Native American tribes used moon phases and cycles to keep track of the seasons by giving a distinctive name to each recurring full moon, including the Flower Moon. The unique full moon names were used to identify the entire month during which each occurred.

Although many Native American tribes gave distinct names to the full moon, the most well known full moon names come from the Algonquin tribes who lived in the area of New England and westward to Lake Superior. The Algonquin tribes had perhaps the greatest effect on the early European settlers in America, and the settlers adopted the Native American habit of naming the full moons.