Thursday April 9, 2009...What's in a name?

I was thinking about April.

The month of April is upon us and a fine month it hopes to be. I got to thinking about where the name April came from. This thought got me to thinking of where many words come from. Did someone pluck the work out of the air and say April is a nice sounding name for this time of year? Or did it have some hidden meaning that corresponds to the time of the year and who gave it the name. Many names are chosen by people just for the sound associated with the action. I think other names are chosen to confuse us or to distinguish us. Where did some of the biblical names come from like Zachariah and Ezekial? Why would you hang such a name on a poor baby? Now my name Bob is a simple name and has no hidden meaning - it's just easy to say and easy to write and easy to remember - so I can see why it was invented. I looked to the dictionary for some help finding out where April came from.

It turns out that many of the names of the months referred to gods and goddesses from Greek and Roman religions. April was named for the goddess Venus or Aphrodite, the fertility goddess. So any of you people named April better watch out. At least you have a loving name unlike March - named for the god of war Mars.

If you ever have some spare time with nothing better to do, look up some favorite words in the dictionary and find out where they came from and what they originally meant - it's interesting.