# Names of the weekdays **URL:** \ **Category:** Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports\ **Created:** [February 28, 2001, 4:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/names-of-the-weekdays/56156 "2001-02-28T04:29:23Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![NiceGuyJack](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/niceguyjack/32/3069_2.png) [@NiceGuyJack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NiceGuyJack)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2001, 4:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/names-of-the-weekdays/56156/1 "2001-02-28T04:29:23Z")
[http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a2\_166.html](http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a2_166.html) In Cecil’s column explaining why there are seven days to a week, Cecil claims the following: > [@](#): > > \*Originally by Cecil Adams \* > \*\* En ancient times, seven planets (including the sun and moon) were thought to exist (and indeed the days of the week were named after them). \*\* Does Cecil mean to say that the seven days of the week in ancient times were named after the planets? Or does he mean to say that that the seven days of the week are named after planets of ancient times. If the second example is what he meant, I just want to point out that today only the Sunday and the Monday could possibly fall under this criteria. As for the other five days, although Saturn is a planet, it is more likely that Saturday was named after the Roman god. Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday were named after Tir, Odin, Thor and Frey; gods of Norse mythology. Could Cecil have been wrong? Shocking! ---
**Author:** ![bibliophage](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bibliophage/32/7615_2.png) [@bibliophage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bibliophage)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2001, 6:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/names-of-the-weekdays/56156/2 "2001-02-28T06:08:20Z")
```auto English Latin named for Sunday Solis dies the sun Monday Lunae dies the moon Tuesday Martis dies Mars Wednesday Mercurii dies Mercury Thursday Jovis dies Jupiter Friday Veneris dies Venus Saturday Saturni dies Saturn ``` The _New Shorter Oxford English Dictionary_ says that Saturni dies was named for the planet Saturn, not the god. I extrapolate from that the other days of the week in Latin were probably also named for the planets. ---
**Author:** ![bibliophage](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bibliophage/32/7615_2.png) [@bibliophage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bibliophage)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2001, 6:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/names-of-the-weekdays/56156/3 "2001-02-28T06:30:08Z")
The days were named after the planets for astrological reasons. The Greeks were probably the first to name the days of the week after the planets, which in turn were named after gods. The Romans adopted the system and changed the names to those of their corresponding gods. See [The Seven-Day Week and the Meanings of the Names of the Days](http://www.crowl.org/Lawrence/time/days.html) ---
**Author:** ![JRDelirious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jrdelirious/32/9531_2.png) [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2001, 5:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/names-of-the-weekdays/56156/4 "2001-02-28T17:47:19Z")
OP: Right – in ancient times the planets were named after the gods, and the days after the seven classical god/planets (incl. sun and moon in the geocentric universe); and “ancient times” for our Western Civilization, means Greece and Rome when there was no English language so Cecil is not wrong… BTW – Spanish: domingo (Dominis Dies, Lord’s Day) lunes(Luna, Moon), martes (Mars), miércoles (Mercury), jueves (Jove), viernes (Venus), sábado (Shabbas[!!!]) The OP however does raise another question (Probably to GQ): how culturally universal is a seven-day week? And if so does it have a common origin or was it arrived at separately I mean, it does tend to roughly match the phases of the moon, an observable recurring phenomenon, but that does not necessarily mean it becomes a standard cyclical component of the calendar (e.g. the Maya, who clearly knew and understood the phases of the Moon) ---
**Author:** ![Arnold\_Winkelried](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Arnold\_Winkelried](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arnold_Winkelried)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2001, 6:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/names-of-the-weekdays/56156/5 "2001-02-28T18:00:24Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by JRDelirious \* > The OP however does raise another question (Probably to GQ): how culturally universal is a seven-day week? And if so does it have a common origin or was it arrived at separately I mean, it does tend to roughly match the phases of the moon, an observable recurring phenomenon, but that does not necessarily mean it becomes a standard cyclical component of the calendar (e.g. the Maya, who clearly knew and understood the phases of the Moon) Actually one could argue that your question is very suited to this forum. 🙂 [Why are there seven days in a week?](http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a2_166.html) Cecil says > [@](#): > > The primitive equivalent of shopping, for instance. The first “weeks,” in fact, appear to have been intervals between market days. The intervals varied–some West African tribes had four-day weeks, and the Egyptian interval was ten days. The first Roman “week” was the nundinae, nine days counted inclusively from one market day to the next. > > Many reasons are given for the seven-day week–probably it’s the result of several of the following factors taken together: the four phases of the moon are roughly seven days in length; the Babylonians believed in the sacredness of the number seven; in ancient times, seven planets (including the sun and moon) were thought to exist (and indeed the days of the week were named after them). The Mosaic sabbath defined a seven-day period, and the dispersed Jews who observed it may have influenced the establishment of the seven-day week–it first appears in the early Christian era. ---
**Author:** ![passerby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/a88e57/32.png) [@passerby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/passerby)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2001, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/names-of-the-weekdays/56156/6 "2001-02-28T18:48:22Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by JRDelirious \* > \*\*BTW – Spanish: domingo (Dominis Dies, Lord’s Day) lunes(Luna, Moon), martes (Mars), miércoles (Mercury), jueves (Jove), viernes (Venus), sábado (Shabbas[!!!]) > \*\* Yep and in French: dimanche (dominis), lundi (lunae), mardi (martis), mercredi (mercurii), jeudi (jovis), vendredi (veneris), samedi (saturni). Interstingly, in Iran the first day of the work week starts on Sunday=yekshanbeh (yek=one), Monday=dohshanbeh (doh=two), … Thursday=panjshanbeh (panj=five), Friday=jom-eh, and Saturday=shanbeh. The first five days of the week are simply the day number followed by the phrase “shanbeh” (don’t know what that means). And Protuguese seems to have a mix of both: Sunday=domingo, Monday=segunda (second), Tuesday=terca (third), … Friday=seixta (sixth), and Saturday=sabado. [I only have basic knowledge of Farsi and Portuguese, so correct me if I’m wrong in any of the above.] It’ll be intersting to know where these naming conventions come from: is the number-based system from Islam/Arabs, or is it just a result of Western civilizations imposing the 7-day week on these cultures? ---
**Author:** ![John\_W.Kennedy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_w.kennedy/32/1031_2.png) [@John\_W.Kennedy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_W.Kennedy)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2001, 10:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/names-of-the-weekdays/56156/7 "2001-02-28T22:53:51Z")
The seven-day week is as Islamic as it is Christian. Some Jews/Christians/Moslems have, over the years, objected to the pagan/planetary names, and attempted to substitute others. “The Lord’s Day” replaced “Sunday” in most non-Germanic Christian countries, but never became standard in English. The Puritans (and, I believe, the Quakers) attempted to introduce numeric designations for the remainder, too. ---
**Author:** ![Protesilaus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/82dd89/32.png) [@Protesilaus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Protesilaus)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2001, 3:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/names-of-the-weekdays/56156/8 "2001-03-04T03:26:33Z")
The Babylonians were the first to name days of the week after planets/gods. The Romans replaced the names with their own gods when Constantine borrowed the idea of a week. The idea of a week didn’t make it to Britain until the time of the Anglo-Saxon conquests, who took up some old Roman customs but kept their own religion and gods. ```auto Planet Ancient Planet-gods Day Name Babylonian Roman Anglo-Saxon (English) Sun Shamash Sol Sun Sunday Moon Sin Luna Moon Monday Mars Nergal Mars Tiw Tuesday Mercury Nabu Mercurius Woden Wednesday Jupiter Marduk Jupiter Thor Thursday Venus Ishtar Venus Freya Friday Saturn Ninurta Saturnus Saturn Saturday ``` Source: _Calendar: Humanity’s Epic Struggle to Determine a True and Accurate Year_, by David Ewing Duncan (p. 56) ---
**Author:** ![RM\_Mentock](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e274bd/32.png) [@RM\_Mentock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RM_Mentock)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2001, 12:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/names-of-the-weekdays/56156/9 "2001-03-04T12:06:21Z")
I believe this has been discussed before–to me, the most interesting thing is how the particular planets were assigned to particular days. Why Sun, moon, Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, Venus, Saturn? If you order the planets (and sun and moon) in descending order of their (apparent) length of time of motion through the heavens, you get Saturn (29 years), Jupiter (12 years), Mars (almost 2 years), Sun (one year!), Venus (224 days), Mercury (88 days), moon (a month). Then, if you assign each planet to an hour, starting with the first hour of the day, and repeating the pattern for an entire week, you find that the first hour of each day is a different planet. And, ta-da, they go like this: Saturn, Sun, moon, Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, Venus. ---
**Author:** ![zev\_steinhardt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/97f17d/32.png) [@zev\_steinhardt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zev_steinhardt)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2001, 8:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/names-of-the-weekdays/56156/10 "2001-03-04T20:14:07Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by John W. Kennedy \* > \*\*The seven-day week is as Islamic as it is Christian. > > Some Jews/Christians/Moslems have, over the years, objected to the pagan/planetary names, \*\* Actually, **John W. Kennedy** , in Judaism, the days of the week do not have names. They are simply called _Yom Rishon_ (first day), _Yom Sheini_ (second day) … _Yom Shishi_ (sixth day). The seventh day (being Shabbos [Sabbath]) is the only one with a name. Zev Steinhardt ---
**Author:** ![John\_W.Kennedy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_w.kennedy/32/1031_2.png) [@John\_W.Kennedy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_W.Kennedy)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2001, 4:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/names-of-the-weekdays/56156/11 "2001-03-07T16:51:58Z")
Quite right. I had been thinking in general terms and forgot that this particular point doesn’t apply to Jews. Although I wonder… What’s the current state of the matter in Israel? ---
**Author:** ![zev\_steinhardt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/97f17d/32.png) [@zev\_steinhardt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zev_steinhardt)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2001, 5:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/names-of-the-weekdays/56156/12 "2001-03-07T17:11:20Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by John W. Kennedy \* > \*\*Quite right. I had been thinking in general terms and forgot that this particular point doesn’t apply to Jews. > > Although I wonder… What’s the current state of the matter in Israel? \*\* In Israel, you can use either the Hebrew method (numbering), or you can refer to the days by their English names (Sunday, Monday, etc.) If you used the Arabic names you’d probably be understood as well. Zev Steinhardt ---
**Author:** ![domina](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/96bed5/32.png) [@domina](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/domina)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2001, 7:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/names-of-the-weekdays/56156/13 "2001-03-08T19:31:21Z")
One thing I’m still wondering–why did Saturn’s day keep its Roman name after all the other days got Germanic names? Did the Norse adopt Saturn as their own?