Augustus is the agnomen conferred by the senate upon the second Caesar, meaning reverend or set apart, and was selected as hedging him with majesty, though not offending the citizens with the word king.  It is closely related to avigur or augur, which the Romans said was "ob avium garritus," because the augur divined by the chatter of birds; while others make it come from augeo (to increase); but it is not impossible that it may be related to the Teuton æge (awe).  At Rome, after Diocletian, the Augustus was always the reigning emperor, the Augusta was his wife; and no one presumed to take the name till the unfortunate Romulus Augustus, called Augustulus in contempt, who ended both the independence of Rome and the empire with the names of their founders. (History of Christian Names, Yonge, 1884)