Get first 3 Letters of a Month's Name in JavaScript

Get the first 3 Letters of a Month's Name #

Use the toLocaleString() method to get the first 3 letters of a month's name. The method accepts an options object, where if the month property is set to short, the return value is the first 3 letters of the month's name.

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const date = new Date(2025, 03, 16);

const shortName = date.toLocaleString('en-US', {month: 'short'});
console.log(shortName); // 👉️ Apr

const narrowName = date.toLocaleString('en-US', {month: 'narrow'});
console.log(narrowName); // 👉️ A

const longName = date.toLocaleString('en-US', {month: 'long'});
console.log(longName); // 👉️ April

We used the toLocaleString method to get the first 3 letters of a month's name.

We passed the following parameters to the method:

1. the locale - in which language the name of the month should be returned. You could set it to default, to use the user's browser preferences.
2. the options object - we set the month setting to short to get the first 3 letters of the month's name. Other possible values are narrow and long.

If you want to change the language of the months name update the locale parameter. Here's an example using german locale.

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const date = new Date(2025, 9, 16);

const shortName = date.toLocaleString('de-DE', {month: 'short'});
console.log(shortName); // 👉️ Okt

const narrowName = date.toLocaleString('de-DE', {month: 'narrow'});
console.log(narrowName); // 👉️ O

const longName = date.toLocaleString('de-DE', {month: 'long'});
console.log(longName); // 👉️ Oktober

Further Reading #

• Get the Number of Keys in an Object using JavaScript
• Get Month Number from Month Name in JavaScript