Why are months in the calendar named the way they are? originally appeared on Quora - the place to gain and share knowledge, empowering people to learn from others and better understand the world.
Answer by Robert Frost, Instructor and Flight Controller at NASA, on Quora:
The ancient Roman calendar was a 10 month calendar that covered the period we today think of as March – December. In the winter period between the end of December and the beginning of the following March, the government wasn’t very active, so they simply didn’t bother to define months for that period. That calendar included the following months:
The fifth through tenth months are named, as you mentioned, for their numerical placement. The first four months have mostly religious origin. March is named for Mars (the god of war), May is named for Maiesta (the goddess of honor), and June is named for the goddess Juno. April comes from the Roman word aprilis which means “to open”. It is a reference to spring and the opening of flower buds.
Eventually, the Romans decided to fill out the rest of the year and two more months were added.
January comes from the god Janus and February from the festival of purification, Februa, that occurred at the time.
The calendar was later reorganized by Julius Caesar into the Julian calendar as follows.
The beginning of the year was moved forward such that January replaced March as the first month. A few years later, Quintilis, the birth month of Julius Caesar, was renamed in honor of Julius Caesar to be July and thirty-six years later, Sextilis was renamed in honor of Augustus Caesar to be August.
Later emperors renamed various months to honor themselves, but those changes did not outlive them, so we inherit a calendar in which four months have names that misrepresent their placement in the calendar.
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