How was December named?
Originally, when the modern calendar was invented, March was the first month of the year. This made December the tenth month of the year, deci coming from the latin for ten. This also explains November, October and September. July is named after Julius Caesar, and August after his successor Augustus. An interesting side note about this is that the number of days in each month originally alternated between 31 and 30, but when Augustus took the throne, he wanted his month to have as many days as Julius’ month. So he took it from the end of the year, February. Since February was originally the last month, this is also why we adjust it for leap years, and not a different month. I’m not sure as to why the order of the months changed though.
