Get the Month Name From a Date

Excel & Google Sheets

How it works

TEXT formats a date using a pattern you choose, and "mmmm" is the code for the full month name — a date anywhere in July becomes "July". Use "mmm" for the short form "Jul", and "mmmm yyyy" for "July 2026" when your data spans years and July 2025 must not merge with July 2026. The catch to remember: the result is text, not a date, so it sorts alphabetically (April before February) and won't feed date math. Keep the real date column for sorting and pivots, and use the TEXT column purely as a label. MONTH(A2) is the numeric cousin — it returns 7, which sorts correctly but reads worse.

A2

The cell holding a real date.

"mmmm"

The format code for the full month name. "mmm" gives "Jul"; "mmmm yyyy" gives "July 2026".

When to use it

Use it to label rows for monthly sales summaries, invoice aging reports grouped by month, or dashboard headers — anywhere a human-readable month beats a raw date.

Common mistakes

• ✕Sorting the month-name column and getting April, August, December…

  ✓Month names are text and sort alphabetically. Sort by the original date column instead, or keep a hidden =MONTH(A2) column for ordering.

• ✕Using "mm" and getting 07.

  ✓"mm" is the two-digit month number (and minutes in time formats). Month *names* need three or four m's: "mmm" or "mmmm".

• ✕Grouping by month name across multiple years.

  ✓July 2025 and July 2026 both label as "July" and merge in a summary. Use =TEXT(A2,"mmmm yyyy") when the data spans years.