The month of May (Latin "Maius") was supposedly named for Maia, though ancient etymologists also connected it to the "maiores" "ancestors", again from the adjective "maius, maior", meaning those who are "greater" in terms of generational precedence. On the first day of May, the Lares Praestites were honored as protectors of the city, and the flamen of Vulcan sacrificed a pregnant sow to Maia, a customary offering to an earth goddess that reiterates the link between Vulcan and Maia in the archaic prayer formula. In Roman myth, Mercury (Hermes), the son of Maia, was the father of the twin Lares, a genealogy that sheds light on the collocation of ceremonies on the Kalends of May. On May 15, the Ides, Mercury was honored as a patron of merchants and increaser of profit (through an etymological connection with "merx, merces", "goods, merchandise"), another possible connection with Maia his mother as a goddess who promoted growth.