January as a Baby Name. Meaning and Origin of January

What is the meaning of the name January ?

The baby name January is a girl name , 4 syllables long and is pronounced JAN-yoo-air-ee.

January is English, Latin in Origin.

January is an English given name taken from the month name. The month’s earliest form is Latin mēnsis Iānuārius, the Janus month, with Iānuārius an adjective built from Iānus and the suffix -ārius. In Roman religion Janus presided over doors, thresholds, beginnings, and transitions; his name is usually linked with Latin iānua, door or entrance. The literal sense is therefore Janus’s month.

Personal use is comparatively rare and mostly modern, alongside other English month names such as April, May, and June. It appears in literature as January, the old husband in Chaucer’s The Merchant’s Tale, and in recent fiction including Alix E. Harrow’s The Ten Thousand Doors of January. Bearers include American actress January Jones and Polish painter January Suchodolski, the latter reflecting Polish use of January as a form related to Januarius. Recent U.S. birth data do not place it among ranked names.