Autumn - fall - what it is?

Note: We are happy to once again read a column by Joanne Niswander. She says that she'll write as the spirit moves her.

For a Writer's Group project, I'm supposed to be waxing poetic about this beautiful season of the year. But, instead, my mind is hung up on a trifling detail that crowds out everything creative. Here's my problem:
Is this Fall or is it Autumn? It seems that every other season of the year has only one name - in English, anyway. Do we ever call Winter anything but Winter? Spring is Spring - there's no other name we use. Summer is Summer. So how did we get two names for the present season of the year?
I suppose, if we took a survey, most people would call this season Fall - at least on first thought. But leaves fall, the Dow falls, our girlish figures fall, we fall behind in any number of things. Falling really isn't that much fun. You might say, it's a downer. So why do we even think about calling this beautiful season Fall? It's not a bad season, so why give it a name with questionable qualities?
In checking the American College Dictionary, I find this explanation: in the U.S. the commonly-used word for the season is Fall, while the word Autumn is regarded as the formal or poetic usage. In England, the word Autumn is used to define the season. The dictionary doesn't mention what word/words the Canadians use.
I've also checked a few other languages to see how they refer to this season of the year. Three of the Romance languages have words that are quite similar to each other, as well as to one of our English words. The French call it "automne" (oh-TAWN), Italians speak of "autunno" (ow-TOON-o) and the Spanish word is "oto~no" (oh-TOE-nyo). Sounds a lot like "autumn" to me! The Germans have come up with an entirely different sounding word, "herbst (HERR-pst). We'll forget about that one - it definitely does not trip off the tongue.
So, after all that research, I still haven't come up with any good reason why we Americans need to use two terms for this season of the year. As for me, I definitely vote for the word Autumn. Fall just doesn't cut it.