Why is the 10th month called October?

Students are so full of curiosity. This curiosity leads to questions. Some questions are easy, some more difficult. As a teacher, i love a challenge, and students present me daily with difficult questions. Some are grammar related, others might be colloquial questions, still others might be cultural in nature. Recently I was asked by a student the following question: Why is the 10th month called October? Doesn’t “octo” mean 8? I was stumped by this question as i had never thought about this before. We discussed this and eventually the naming of all the months for the rest of the lesson. The students used a recent one point (see C21 I believe…) to discuss their theories. For example: I believe that December means “month 10” but I’m not sure so let’s check later. Another student said: I believe that the calendar must have started in March in the past, so October was the 8th month, but I’m not sure so let’s use Google to check after class. As it turns out, both of these students’ theories were correct. After class we checked online, and this is what we found:
January is named after Janus, the Roman god of beginnings and endings
February is named after the Italian god Februus, the Roman month of purification
March is named after the Roman god Mars and was the 1st month of the old Roman calendar
April comes from an old Latin word, apirere, which means “to open” (sounds like Spring to me!)
May was the 3rd month of the old Roman calendar
June is named after Juno, another Roman god
July was originally called quintilis, which means 5, but was later changed in honour of Julius Caesar’s birth month
August was originally called sextilis, which means 6, but was later changed in honour of emperor Augustus
September comes from septem, meaning 7
October comes from octo, meaning 8
November comes from novemb, meaning 9
December comes from decem, meaning 10
To learn more about the naming of the month, check HERE.
As an English teacher, I learn something new every day, thanks in large part to my wonderful students’ questions!
Edward, Smith’s School of English Otsu