Originally named Sextilis, renamed Augustus after the deified Roman emperor,
Caesar’s nephew and heir. Z Budapest says the name is derived from one of Juno’s aspects,
Juno Augusta, a term later applied to priests and then to emperors.

Under the protection of Ceres, the goddess of the harvest
August goddesses: Artemis, Cere, Demeter, Kore, Diana, Venus, Ops, Mary,
Gauri, Chango, Chang-mu, Ethne, Tailte

The Secret Society of Happy People has declared August as Admit You’re Happy Month, a charming notion which I think is worth promoting. “We’re hoping people will take this month to think about how much time they actually spend telling their family, their friends and co-workers about the things that make them happy,” says Pam Johnson, founder of the Society. For more ideas on celebrating Admit You’re Happy Month see the Society’s website at: www.sohp.com

Names of the Month in Various Cultures
Anglo-Saxon: Arn-monath, harvest month, and Weod-monath, weed month
Scots Gaelic An Lunasdal, month of Lugh’s feast
Irish Gaelia, Lughnasadh (Lunasa), month of Lugh’s feast

Kightly, Charles, The Perpetual Almanack of Folklore, Thames & Hudson 1987

Aleuts: The Warm month
Ugric Ostiaks: Month of hay harvest
Tatars: Grass month
Karagasses: Month in which the lily-bulb is dug up
Kamchatka: Moonlight month (people fish by moonlight)
Yukon: Swans molt, young geese fly
Eskimos: Velvet-shedding (from the horns of the reindeer)
Konyag (off the island of Kodiak): Pleiades rise
Tlinkit, Wrangell: All animals prepare their dens

Albania: Autumn month
Basque: Month of drought
Lithuanian: Hot month or Rye-cutting or Dog days
Russia: Month of ripeness
Ruthenia: Sickle month
Moravia: Cutting month
Bulgaria: Fruit month
Slovakia: Gadfly month
Old Bugarian: Beginning of the lowing (rutting of the deer)
Bulgarian: Drying up of the rivers
Denmark: Corn-month (remember that corn was once the generic word for all grain)

So prevalent was the connection of August with the harvest that August came to mean simply harvest, so much so that in some countries July is the first August and August the second August, while in other places, August is the first August and September the second August.

Nilsson, Martin P, Primitive Time-Reckoning, Oxford University Press 1920

The sixth was August, being rich arrayed
In garment all of gold down to the ground:
Yet rode he not, but led a lovely Maid
Forth by the lily hand, the which was crowned
With ears of corn, and full her hand was found;
That was the righteous Virgin, which of old
Lived here on earth, and plenty made abound;
But, after Wrong was love and Justice sold,
She left the unrighteous world and was to heaven extolled.

Spenser, The Fairy Queen, VII, vii 37