MySQL MONTHNAME() Function

The MONTHNAME() function in MySQL retrieves the full name of the month from a given date value. This is very useful for presenting dates in a more user-friendly format or for filtering and sorting data based on month names.

MONTHNAME(): Definition and Usage

Instead of returning a number representing the month (like 1 for January, 2 for February), MONTHNAME() returns the full textual name of the month (e.g., "January", "February"). This makes your queries easier to read and understand, especially when displaying the results to end-users.

Syntax


MONTHNAME(date)

Parameter Values

Parameter	Description
`date`	The date or datetime value from which you want to extract the month name. This is required.

Examples

Extracting the Month Name from a Date

This example gets the name of the month for June 15th, 2017.

Syntax


SELECT MONTHNAME("2017-06-15");

Output


June

Extracting the Month Name from a Datetime

This example shows that MONTHNAME() works correctly even with datetime values.

Syntax


SELECT MONTHNAME("2017-06-15 09:34:21");

Output


June

Extracting the Current Month Name

Getting the name of the current month.

Syntax


SELECT MONTHNAME(CURDATE());

Output


(The current month's name, e.g., October)