Name meaning and origin
April
English, from Latin: From the name of the month April
Pronounced AY-prəl (Spanish Abril: ah-BREEL)
Where the name comes from
- English, from LatinFrom the name of the month AprilLatin (mensis) Aprilis, through Old French avrilApril comes straight from the month name. English had the month word by about 1300. It came from Old French avril, which came from Latin Aprilis. Use as a personal name is recent. A family-name dictionary finds no evidence of April as a personal name before the 1800s.
- LatinOrigin uncertainAprilis, a stem of unknown origin plus the month-name ending -ilisNo one knows for sure where Aprilis comes from. There are three main ideas. (1) It comes from Latin aperire, 'to open,' because buds open in spring. This is the popular meaning. Britannica calls it probable, but one etymology dictionary calls it an old folk etymology. (2) It comes from Apru, an Etruscan form of the Greek goddess Aphrodite. The Romans held April sacred to Venus, Aphrodite's Roman counterpart. (3) It meant 'the following, the next,' because April was the second month of the oldest Roman calendar.
April across traditions
- Ancient Rome. The Romans considered April sacred to the goddess Venus. In their oldest calendar, it was the second month of the year.
- English and Christian calendar. The Latin month name replaced the Old English name Eastermonað, 'Easter month.'
- Spanish and Portuguese. Abril is the Spanish and Portuguese form. It was used as a personal name long ago and later became a family name. In the US, the given name Abril peaked at #438 in 2007.
- Jewish (Ashkenazic). April is also an Ashkenazic Jewish family name, from the German word for the month. It is one of the names created rather than inherited.
- United States. Peaked in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Its highest US rank was #23, in 1979.
Who carried it
- April Ashley (1935–2021): English model, author and LGBT rights activist.
Forms in other languages
Abril, Avril, Aprile, Abrell, Averill
April in letter-number systems
Hebrew, Greek and other traditions gave every letter a number, and read meaning into the totals. These are the counts, computed; the readings are inside the Innerverse.
321
Hebrew Standard
6
Hebrew Ordinal
56
English Simple
336
English Sumerian
79
English Reverse
221
Greek Isopsephy
6
Chaldean
2
Pythagorean
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