Get month name from date

Get month name from date

Generic formula 

=TEXT(date,"mmmm")

Related formulas 

Get month from date

Get day name from date

Convert date to text

Convert text to date

Explanation

If you need to get the month name (i.e. January, February, March, etc.) from a date, you have several options depending on your needs.

Do you just want to display the month name?

If you only want to display a month name, you don't need a formula – you can use a custom number format. Select the date and navigate to Format cells (Ctrl + 1 or Cmd +1), then select Custom and enter one of these custom formats:

"mmm" // "Jan""mmmm" // "January"

Excel will display only the month name, but it will leave the date value intact.

Do you want to convert the date into a month name?

If you want to convert the date value to a text value, you can use the TEXT function with a custom number format like "mmm". In the example, the formula looks like this:

=TEXT(B4,"mmmm")

The TEXT function converts values to text using the number format that you provide. Note that the date is lost in the conversion: only the text for the month name remains.

A more flexible way

If you want maximum flexibility, you can "map" the month to a month name directly in the CHOOSE function like so:

=CHOOSE(MONTH(B4),"Jan","Feb","Mar","Apr","May","Jun","Jul","Aug","Sep","Oct","Nov","Dec")

Enter the month names you want to return (abbreviated or not) as values in CHOOSE, after the first argument, which is entered as MONTH(date). MONTH will extract a month number, and CHOOSE will use this number to return the nth value in the list. This works because MONTH returns a number 1-12 that corresponds to the month name.

CHOOSE is more work to set up, but it is also more flexible, since it allows you to map a date to any values you want (i.e. you can use values that are custom, abbreviated, not abbreviated, in a different language, etc.)

Get month name from date

Generic formula 

=TEXT(date,"mmmm")

Related formulas 

Get month from date

Get day name from date

Convert date to text

Convert text to date

Explanation

If you need to get the month name (i.e. January, February, March, etc.) from a date, you have several options depending on your needs.

Do you just want to display the month name?

If you only want to display a month name, you don't need a formula – you can use a custom number format. Select the date and navigate to Format cells (Ctrl + 1 or Cmd +1), then select Custom and enter one of these custom formats:

"mmm" // "Jan""mmmm" // "January"

Excel will display only the month name, but it will leave the date value intact.

Do you want to convert the date into a month name?

If you want to convert the date value to a text value, you can use the TEXT function with a custom number format like "mmm". In the example, the formula looks like this:

=TEXT(B4,"mmmm")

The TEXT function converts values to text using the number format that you provide. Note that the date is lost in the conversion: only the text for the month name remains.

A more flexible way

If you want maximum flexibility, you can "map" the month to a month name directly in the CHOOSE function like so:

=CHOOSE(MONTH(B4),"Jan","Feb","Mar","Apr","May","Jun","Jul","Aug","Sep","Oct","Nov","Dec")

Enter the month names you want to return (abbreviated or not) as values in CHOOSE, after the first argument, which is entered as MONTH(date). MONTH will extract a month number, and CHOOSE will use this number to return the nth value in the list. This works because MONTH returns a number 1-12 that corresponds to the month name.

CHOOSE is more work to set up, but it is also more flexible, since it allows you to map a date to any values you want (i.e. you can use values that are custom, abbreviated, not abbreviated, in a different language, etc.)