# How to get the month name from a JavaScript date

> Learn how to get the month name from a JavaScript Date using the toLocaleString() method with the month long or short option, in any locale you want.

Author: [Flavio Copes](https://flaviocopes.com/about/) | Published: 2019-10-11 | Topics: [JavaScript](https://flaviocopes.com/tags/js/) | Canonical: https://flaviocopes.com/how-to-get-month-from-javascript-date/

Given a [JavaScript](https://flaviocopes.com/javascript/) Date object instance, how can you get a string that represents the month name?

In other words, from

```js
const today = new Date()
```

how can we get the **month name**?

Every Date object instance has a `toLocaleString()` method, which is one of the [JavaScript internationalization methods](https://flaviocopes.com/javascript-internationalization/).

Using it you can get the month name in your current locale, and here's how you can use it:

```js
const today = new Date()
today.toLocaleString('default', { month: 'long' })
```

Depending on your current locale you'll get a different result. I get "October" as a result.

Using the `short` format for the date, I get "Oct":

```js
today.toLocaleString('default', { month: 'short' })
```

The first parameter, to which we pass the `default` string, is the locale. You can pass any locale you want, for example `it-IT` will return you `ottobre`:

```js
const today = new Date()
today.toLocaleString('it-IT', { month: 'long' })
```