January comes from the Latin Ianuarius, named after Janus—the Roman god of doors, gates, beginnings, and transitions. Janus is famously depicted with two faces, one looking forward and one looking backward, symbolizing his dominion over past and future, entry and exit. The Romans placed him at the start of the year for obvious symbolic reasons: what better god to preside over the threshold between old and new?
The imagery is elegant. The word is not. January tells the English learner nothing about its position in the calendar. It is a four-syllable cultural reference to a deity most English speakers cannot name and have never worshiped. The Roman calendar itself did not originally begin in January—that was a reform attributed to King Numa Pompilius around 700 BCE. Before him, the year began in March, and January and February did not even exist.
English learners face the calendar as a memorization puzzle. Twelve month-names, each with a different etymological origin, none of which provides any clue about order. A student in Beijing cannot look at January and derive “first month.” A student in Lagos cannot look at February and derive “second month.” The calendar is a list of proper nouns, not a system.
Most world languages abandoned this approach centuries ago. Chinese uses yī yuè (month one) through shí èr yuè (month twelve). Japanese uses ichigatsu through jūnigatsu—literally “one-month” through “twelve-month.” These systems are universally learnable because they are transparent: the name of the month is its number.
A numbered month is logical, learnable, and universal. Month One requires no mythology lesson. It means exactly what it says.
Our Recommendation: Month One. Start the year with a number, not a two-faced god.