It had been 4 years since this male first name had been celebrated

This year, a male name that had not been celebrated for four years will finally be celebrated this month. It is an old first name which had its heyday from 1900 and into the 1920s, including 2,951 births in 1906, before being put aside in the following years. Since the 2000s, it has been heard again in maternity wards and in schoolyards.

In 2021, for example, 757 births were registered under the first name Auguste. Of course, there is also the feminine version of the first name with Augustine and Augusta. But children who are called that have a particularity. We do not celebrate this name every year as is the case for all the other Saint names of the year. For example, the Mathilde’s have their birthday on March 14, the Renaud’s on September 17 and that’s how it is for most first names and their variations. In 2024, it is finally the year of the first name Augustus and its derivatives Augusto, Agosto, Augustus and August.

But then, why is this name only celebrated this year? This is due to the leap year. Every four years, our calendar year has 366 days instead of 365. This extra day is added to the month of February which thus has a 29th day. This is the case this year and this date corresponds to Saint Augustus Day.

A rare event to say the least, which is due to the rotation of the Earth around the Sun in one year. The revolution, which designates this movement, takes place not in exactly 365 days as we imagine, but exactly in 365.2422 days. That’s 365 days, 5 hours, 48 ​​minutes and 45 seconds. A detail which is important, because at a certain time, the Julian calendar was not aligned with the rotation of the Earth. Thus, the ancient Roman general, Julius Caesar, had the idea of ​​adding an additional day to our year of 365 days to compensate for this difference. This is how the concept of a leap year was created, and since then, Augustus has had its official feast day on February 29.