Where Do Months Get Their Names?

The origins of the months’ names, as well as the calendar of 12 months totaling 365 days, lie in ancient history, several hundred years before the common era.

Ancient Roman legend has it that Romulus (of Romulus and Remus, supposed to have been suckled and raised by wolves), the first king of Rome, instituted a 10-month calendar around 738 BCE: Martius, Aprilis, Maius, Juniius, Quintilis, Sextilis, September, October, November, December. (Historians no longer credit the development of the ancient Roman republican calendar to Romulus, who is himself now regarded more as a figure of legend than history.)

Even now, over two and a half millennia later, most of the months’ names look familiar (though a few have long since dropped the Latinate endings). But what do the names mean? What happened to Quintilis and Sextilis? And where are the other two months?

1. January
2. February
3. March
4. April
5. May
6. June
7. July
8. August
9. September Through December

January

Our calendar year begins in January, which is when the new year starts in the Roman calendar since sometime in the middle of the second century CE. January takes its name from the ancient Roman god Janus, a god of doorways and gates, who is represented as having two faces on opposite sides of his head. In the Roman period, though, the month was known as Januarius.

February

February is named for Februalia, an ancient Roman festival of purification to honor the goddess Juno in her guise as Februa, a deity of erotic love.

According to ancient Roman legend, Rome’s second king, Numa Pompilius (who succeeded its founder and first king, Romulus), added both February and January to what was previously a 10-month calendar (totaling 304 days, the remaining 61 days simply being ignored) sometime around 700 BCE. (Modern scholars consider the dating accurate but consider the addition of the two months the product of a long process and not the work of a character of legend, let alone any single person.)

This early form of the 12-month Roman calendar had February following December until it was moved to its current place between January and March in 452 BC.

March

What we call March was known in ancient times as Martius, after the Roman god of war, Mars. In early versions of the Roman calendar, the new year was considered to begin in March, and this remained the case until the middle of the second century CE, when January was designated the first month of the calendar year.

April

April was known as Aprilis in ancient Rome. The ancient Romans considered the month sacred to Venus, and its name may derive from Aphrodite (Venus’s Greek equivalent) or the Latin word aperire (to open), probably in reference to the opening of buds with the coming of spring.

May

May, called Maius in the early 10-month calendar of ancient Rome, is possibly named after Maia, the Roman fertility goddess.

June

Juniius, as it was first called in the ancient Roman calendar, is likely named for Juno, wife of Jupiter, a goddess connected to many aspects of women’s lives, especially marriage, fertility, and childbirth.

July

July was originally named Quintilis, meaning “fifth month,” indicating its position in the calendar when the year was considered to begin with March. In the calendar with March/Martius as the first month, the fifth month was known by this name until it was renamed Julius around 44 BCE, in honor of Julius Caesar.

August

The month now called August received that name around 8 BCE, during the reign of Augustus Caesar, to honor him. For hundreds of years before that, this month had been known as Sextilis, meaning “sixth month,” for its place in ancient Rome’s 10-month calendar.

September Through December

September, October, November, and December all get their names from their numerical positions in the 10-month calendar used in ancient Rome until Julius Caesar introduced the Julian calendar.

Even though these are now the ninth through 12th months of a 12-month calendar, they retain the same names they’ve had for over two and a half thousand years, deriving from septem (seven), octo (eight), novem (nine), and decem (10).

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