Today , all of our names for the months of the year can be traced back to Ancient Rome . Januarycomes from Janus , the name ofa dual - faced Roman godof entryway and gateway who was said to be perpetually both looking backward into the year that had just ended and forward into the year that is to come . Februarytakes its name fromFebrua , a romish springtime festival of purification and cleanliness , whileMarchwas discover for Mars , the Roman graven image of war . Aprilis thought to come fromaperire , a Romance Scripture mean “ to open up , ” like leaping flower or the buds on Tree . MayandJunehonor the fertility goddesses Maia and Juno respectively , whileJulyandAugusttake their name from Julius and Augustus Caesar . And because the early Roman year began in March rather than January , the terminal four months of our class — September , October , NovemberandDecember — were in the beginning the 7th ( septem ) , eighth ( octo ) , 9th ( novem ) , and 10th ( decem ) calendar month of the Roman calendar .
Long before these names were adopt into English , however , a Germanic calendar that had been brought to England from mainland Europe by Anglo - Saxon settler was used to dissever the yr into 12 ( or sometimes 13 ) lunar calendar month . The earliest and most detailed invoice we have of this pre - Christian calendar come fromSt . Bede , an eighth C Thelonious Sphere Monk and scholar based in Jarrow in northeast England , who outlined the old Anglo - Saxon months of the year in his workDe temporum ratione , or “ The figuring of Time , ” in advertizement 725 .
January , Bede explain , correspond to an Anglo - Saxon calendar month know asÆftera Geola , or “ After Yule”—the month , quite literally , after Christmas .
FebruarywasSōlmōnath , a name that obviously derived from an Old English Word of God for wet Amandine Aurore Lucie Dupin or mud , sōl ; according to Bede , it meant “ the month of cakes , ” when ritual offerings of savory cakes and loaves of lettuce would be made to ensure a honorable yr ’s harvest time . The joining between Old English mud and Bede ’s “ month of bar ” has long confused student of Old English , with some claiming that Bede could even have gotten the name wrong — but it ’s plausible that the nameSōlmōnathmight have referred to the cakes ’ sandy , gritty grain .
MarchwasHrēðmonathto the ancient Anglo - Saxons , and was list in honor of a little - known pagan birth rate goddess namedHreða , orRheda . Her name eventually becameLidein some southern accent of English , and the nameLideorLide - monthwas still being used locally in parts of sou'-west England until as recently as the 19th one C .
Aprilcorresponds to the Anglo - SaxonEostremonath , which took its name from another mysterious heathen deity namedEostre . She is thought to have been a goddess of the dawn who was honored with a festival around the time of the spring equinox , which , harmonise to some account statement , finally morphed into our festival of Easter . Oddly , no story of Eostre is immortalise anywhere else outside of Bede ’s writings , casting some doubt on the reliability of his accounting — but as theOxford English Dictionaryexplains , “ it seems unlikely that Bede would have invented a fictitious pagan festival for report for a Christian one . ”
MaywasThrimilce , or “ the calendar month of three milkings , ” when livestock were often so well feed on invigorated spring smoke that they could be milked three multiplication a twenty-four hours .
JuneandJulywere together known asLiða , an Old English Holy Writ meaning “ mild ” or “ gentle , ” which referred to the period of tender , seasonable weather either side of Midsummer . To differentiate between the two , June was sometimes have a go at it asÆrraliða , or “ before - mild , ” and July wasÆfteraliða , or “ after - mild ; ” in some days a “ leap calendar month ” was added to the calendar at the tallness of the summertime , which wasThriliða , or the “ third - mild . ”
AugustwasWeodmonathor the “ plant life month . ” After that cameSeptember , orHāligmonath , meaning “ holy month , ” when celebrations and religious festivals would be held to celebrate a successful summertime ’s craw .
OctoberwasWinterfylleth , or the “ wintertime full moon , ” because , as Bede explain , wintertime was said to begin on the first full lunation in October .
NovemberwasBlōtmonath , or “ the month of blood sacrifice . ” No one is quite sure what the purpose of this previous autumnal forfeit would have been , but it ’s likely that any old or rickety livestock that seemed unlikely to see out defective weather condition ahead would be killed both as a backlog of food for thought , and as an oblation for a safe and mild wintertime .
AndDecember , eventually , wasÆrra Geolaor the calendar month “ before Yule , ” after whichÆftera Geolawould come round again .
Use of the Germanic calendar dwindled as Christianity — which brought with it the RomanJulian Calendar — was introduced more widely across England in the Early Middle Ages . It quickly became the touchstone , so that by the sentence that Bede was writing he could force out the “ ethnic ” Teutonic calendar as the product of an “ olden clip . ”
