How MONTHNAME() Works in MariaDB

In MariaDB, MONTHNAME() is a built-in date and time function that returns the name of the month name for a given date.

It accepts one argument, which is the date you want to extract the month name from.

Syntax

The syntax goes like this:

MONTHNAME(date)

Where date is the date to get the month name from.

Example

Here’s an example:

SELECT MONTHNAME('2041-11-14');

Result:

+-------------------------+
| MONTHNAME('2041-11-14') |
+-------------------------+
| November                |
+-------------------------+

Language

The language used for the month name is controlled by the value of the lc_time_names system variable.

Here’s an example that shows how this affects the result:

SET lc_time_names = 'es_AR';
SELECT MONTHNAME('2041-11-14');

Result:

+-------------------------+
| MONTHNAME('2041-11-14') |
+-------------------------+
| noviembre               |
+-------------------------+

And switching back to en_US, which is the default:

SET lc_time_names = 'en_US';
SELECT MONTHNAME('2041-11-14');

Result:

+-------------------------+
| MONTHNAME('2041-11-14') |
+-------------------------+
| November                |
+-------------------------+

Here’s a list of locales supported by MariaDB, and here’s how to return your own list of available locales.

And here’s a post explaining how to check the value of your lc_time_names system variable.

Datetime Values

It also works with datetime values:

SELECT MONTHNAME('2041-01-15 10:30:45');

Result:

+----------------------------------+
| MONTHNAME('2041-01-15 10:30:45') |
+----------------------------------+
| January                          |
+----------------------------------+

Zero Months

Having a zero month in the date returns null:

SELECT MONTHNAME('2030-00-00');

Result:

+-------------------------+
| MONTHNAME('2030-00-00') |
+-------------------------+
| NULL                    |
+-------------------------+

Numeric Dates

It’s also possible to pass dates as a number, as long as it makes sense as a date.

Example

SELECT MONTHNAME(20201208);

Result:

+---------------------+
| MONTHNAME(20201208) |
+---------------------+
| December            |
+---------------------+

Two-digit years are fine:

SELECT MONTHNAME(201208);

Result:

+-------------------+
| MONTHNAME(201208) |
+-------------------+
| December          |
+-------------------+

But it must make sense as a date. Here’s what happens if I increase the day part to an invalid day:

SELECT MONTHNAME(201299);

Result:

+-------------------+
| MONTHNAME(201299) |
+-------------------+
| NULL              |
+-------------------+

Other Delimiters

You can use other delimiters for the date. MariaDB is quite forgiving when it comes to delimiters on dates. Here are some valid examples:

SELECT 
    MONTHNAME('2027/08/19'),
    MONTHNAME('2027,08,19'),
    MONTHNAME('2027:08:19'),
    MONTHNAME('2027;08!19');

Result (using vertical output):

MONTHNAME('2027/08/19'): August
MONTHNAME('2027,08,19'): August
MONTHNAME('2027:08:19'): August
MONTHNAME('2027;08!19'): August

Current Date

We can pass NOW() as the date argument to use the current date:

SELECT 
    NOW(),
    MONTHNAME(NOW());

Result:

+---------------------+------------------+
| NOW()               | MONTHNAME(NOW()) |
+---------------------+------------------+
| 2021-05-14 10:11:16 | May              |
+---------------------+------------------+

Invalid Arguments

When passed an invalid argument, MONTHNAME() returns null:

SELECT MONTHNAME('Wrong!');

Result:

+---------------------+
| MONTHNAME('Wrong!') |
+---------------------+
| NULL                |
+---------------------+

Missing Argument

Calling MONTHNAME() with the wrong number of arguments, or without passing any arguments, results in an error:

SELECT MONTHNAME();

Result:

ERROR 1582 (42000): Incorrect parameter count in the call to native function 'MONTHNAME'

And another example:

SELECT MONTHNAME('2030-01-25', '2045-05-08');

Result:

ERROR 1582 (42000): Incorrect parameter count in the call to native function 'MONTHNAME'