Ever wondered how the months were named? Some month names are derived from Roman deities, or the number of the month and, in the case of July, named after a Roman emperor.
July was originally called Quintilis, which in Latin means “fifth,” because it was the fifth month in the ancient Roman calendar. At that time, January was not the first month of the year, that change happened about 450 BC.
The calendar has seen a lot of changes. First, there was the Roman calendar, then the Julian calendar and finally the Gregorian calendar, which is our current calendar
“The Julian calendar was introduced by Julius Caesar himself in 46 BC, where he added — probably after returning from an African military campaign in late Quntilis (July) — an additional 67 days by putting two intercalary months between November and December, as Cicero tells us at the time. This took care of some of the leap year problems. The Romans, after his death, renamed Quintilis to Iulius (July) in honor of his birth month,” writes historian Bill Petro.
The month officially became known as July in 44 BC, the year of Caesar’s assassination.
The Social Security office reports that 11 baby boys and 16 baby girls were named July in 2015.
