of the Pleiades, the companions of Artemis. This Maia was the mother of Hermes, the messenger of the Gods. But the Romans had yet another goddess named Maia, who just happened to share a name with the Greek goddess. The Roman Maia was named for the Latin word for large, maius, and she was associated with growth and the spring. As the Romans adopted many elements of Greek culture, the two goddesses became conflated and gave their name to the fifth month.
However, there is
another suggestion that the month is not named for these intertwined goddesses at all. The Latin poet Ovid claimed
that the month may have been named after the Latin word maiores, ”elders,” to juxtapose it to the month
of June, which was named after iuniores, the Latin word for youth.
The month of May entered English from the Old French in the
1000s. In Old English, the month of May and “mother may I” could not be
confused because there was another name for the month of May. Sadly, we lost the Old English word for
the fifth month of the year: þrimilce. It literally meant “three milkings”
because it was the only month of the year when cows could be milked three times
per day. May’s confusion with may (the verb) is a small linguistic coincidence,
not a meaningful overlap. The verb may came
from the Old English word magan meaning “to be able.”