'autoheader' is a compound formed in English from the prefix 'auto-' (from Greek 'autos', meaning 'self') and 'header' (from English 'head' + suffix '-er', where 'head' comes from Old English 'heafod' meaning 'top' or 'main part').

'header' developed in technical use to mean the 'head' or leading portion of a file or data block (a file 'header'); combining 'auto-' with 'header' produced 'autoheader' in computing to name a tool that automatically produces such headers (notably in the Autoconf toolset).

The literal elements suggested 'self' + 'head', but in computing the compound came to mean specifically 'a tool that automatically creates header/template files' rather than a literal 'self head'.