Named after Janus, the god who guards the doors, whose holiday falls on January 7th.

Names of the Month to the Northern Tribes
Aleuts: sea-lion month
Koryak (north of Kamchatka): cold winds month or snowstorm month
Ugric Ostiaks: Month in which men go on horseback (the month before as walking month because men could still walk on the snow)
Yeneseik Ostiaks: Month when the earth greezes
Tatars: Mottled month (bare patches appear among the snow)

Early Roman calendars had only ten months and went from March to December. January and February were added, supposedly in the 7th century BCE. I particularly like this notion that January doesn’t really exist—I call it the Blank Month.

In Scots Gaelic the name of the month is faoilteach or faoilleach, which means wild and also wolf. It was also called am Mios Marbh (the dead month) and Deireadh-Geambraidh (the end of winter).
Sacred to Juno; the Greek month celebrating her marriage begins on the new moon after the winter solstice.

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