Names of months

What is each month called in different European languages?

A Linguist's Calendar

Calendar months and days

The lunar month — the period from one new moon to the next — naturally averages 29.5 days, but the Western calendar uses calendar months of a whole number of days, 30 or 31 (February has 28). For adjustments, since there are slightly fewer than six extra hours a year left over, they are added to February as a 29th day every fourth year (leap year). Century years are excepted unless they are divisible by 400. For example, 1896 was a leap year, 1900 was not, and 2000 was a leap year.

Month names in most European languages were probably derived as follows: January from Janus, Roman god; February from Februalia, Roman festival of purification; March from Mars, Roman god; April from Latin aperire, 'to open'; May from Maia, Roman goddess; June from Juno, Roman goddess; July from Julius Caesar, Roman general; August from Augustus, Roman emperor; September, October, November and December (originally the seventh to tenth months) from the Latin words for seven, eight, nine and ten, respectively.

January - April

May - August

September - December