Now the 10th month is upon us. October, to be followed by November and December...wait a moment! October, the 10th month? A mistake surely. Oct suggests 8, (octo) Nov (novem) suggests 9, and Dec (decem) is definitely 10. What goes on here...Or has someone goofed? A rummage through a few old books sheds some light on things.

January, as we all know is named for the two-faced Roman god, Janus. He had faces on either side of his head so he could see ahead as well a behind. This is a good idea for looking back to the shortest period of the year and forward to the longest.

February comes from and old Sabine word signifying purification. The Romans held a purification festival on the 15th of this month.

March is notorious as the month of Mars the god of war. It appears that March figured in the pre-Julian calendar as the first month and included the vernal equinox...the official start of spring.

April..well April is April.

As for May no one really knows where that came from. Most ancient writers tend to connect the word with the goddess Maia.

June is a robust month after it’s namesake the goddess Juno the wild bride of Jupiter. But it is with July that things start to change.

July was named after Julius Caesar when the Romans took into their heads to make him a god.

Not to be up-staged, the eight month was fashioned after Augustus Caesar, who was the first Roman emperor and not Julius’ best pal. With the addition of these two months all logic goes out the window. We could, of course, call the ninth month, hæfestmónað (which is old English for ‘harvest’.) Besides looking strange, just try saying it. hæfestmónað is a non-starter. So the ancients just slipped the months following Julius and Augustus sneak attack, south and September which should be the 7th month became the 9th, October the 8th month became the 10th, etc., etc.

As for -ber, the meaning of those three letters, the Oxford English Dictionary tells us, is uncertain. A big help that. Most of these words first show up in English in the the 11th century. Now you know.