Vulgar Era

Originated in Latin as aerae vulgaris (vulgaris from vulgus: "the common people", i.e. those who are not royalty) at least as early as 1615, long before vulgar came to mean "crudely indecent". Earliest English usage is 1635.

Vulgar Era

1. Common Era
   • 1635, Johann Kepler, Adriaan Vlacq, Ephemerides of the Celestiall Motions, for the Yeers of the Vulgar Era 1633...‎, retrieved 2007-12-18, title:

     Ephemerides of the Celestiall Motions, for the Yeers of the Vulgar Era 1633...

   • 1716, Humphrey Prideaux, D.D., The Old and New Testament Connected in the History of the Jews and Neighbouring Nations, volume 1, Edinburgh: D. Schaw & Co., translation of from Oxford University Press, published 1799, retrieved 2007-12-14, digitized 2007-03-26, page 1:

     This happened in the seventh year after the building of Rome, and in the second year of the eighth Olympiad, which was the seven hundred forty-seventh year before Christ, i. e. before the beginning of the vulgar æra, by which we now compute the years from his incarnation.