Month Names in English: 12 Months List, Order and Spelling

A month name in English is a proper noun, so it always begins with a capital letter: January, not january. The Gregorian calendar divides the year into 12 months, each with a fixed position, a set number of days, and a short form used on calendars and exam forms. All twelve appear below in order, with the spelling traps that cost marks in dictation and the sentence patterns that show each name in use.

12 Month Names in English (January to December)

The twelve months in correct sequence:

1. January
2. February
3. March
4. April
5. May
6. June
7. July
8. August
9. September
10. October
11. November
12. December

Students in Classes 1 to 4 are usually asked to write these from memory, so the sequence matters as much as the spelling.

Order of the 12 Months With Short Forms

Cover the middle column and name each month from its number. That single exercise fixes both the order and the spelling faster than reading the list again.

School diaries, railway tickets, bank forms and calendar apps all use the three-letter versions. American style adds a full stop after the abbreviation (Jan.), British style leaves it out (Jan). Either way the capital letter stays. May, June and July are short enough that most writing keeps them in full.

How Many Days in Each Month

Seven months have 31 days, four have 30, and February stands alone on 28. A leap year arrives once every four years and gives February a 29th day, which keeps the calendar matched to the Earth’s orbit around the sun.

The old rhyme runs: Thirty days hath September, April, June and November. All the rest have thirty-one, except February alone. The knuckle trick is quicker still. Count across the knuckles and dips of one fist, starting with January on the first knuckle: every knuckle is a 31-day month, every dip between them is a 30-day month, and February lands on the first dip.

Month Names Spelling and Common Mistakes

Marks go missing in dictation more often on spelling than on order. Five months account for almost every error.

• February ✅ Febuary ❌ The first r disappears because nobody sounds it. Say Feb-ru-a-ry slowly while writing.
• September ✅ Septmber ❌ The e after Sept gets swallowed in speech.
• August ✅ Agust ❌ Two vowels open the word: Au-gust.
• November ✅ Novemeber ❌ One m, one b, no extra e.
• December ✅ Decemeber ❌ Same trap as November, same fix.

Writing a difficult month three times aloud beats reading it ten times in silence.

Meaning and Origin of Each Month

Almost every month name in English traces back to Latin and the Roman calendar. Knowing the source makes the spelling easier to remember.

• January: Janus, Roman god of doorways and beginnings, shown with two faces looking backward and forward.
• February: Februa, a Roman purification festival held in mid-month.
• March: Mars, Roman god of war. The Roman year originally started here.
• April: the Latin aperire, meaning to open, for the season when buds open.
• May: Maia, a Roman goddess linked with growth and spring.
• June: Juno, Roman goddess of marriage and queen of the gods.
• July: Julius Caesar, the first real person to give a month his name.
• August: Augustus, the first Roman emperor.
• September: septem, Latin for seven, its position in the old ten-month calendar.
• October: octo, Latin for eight.
• November: novem, Latin for nine.
• December: decem, Latin for ten.

The last four names sit two places out of step with their numbers because January and February joined the calendar later and pushed everything back.

Using Month Names in Sentences

The preposition changes with what follows it. Use in before a month on its own, and on before a full date.

• My birthday is in March.
• The new session starts in June.
• The exam is on 15 March.
• She joined the school on 3 September 2025.
• We travel in December every year. ✅
• We travel on December every year. ❌

Capitalization applies in every position, including mid-sentence: The results came out in April, never in april. The same rule governs the days of the week in English, which are proper nouns for exactly the same reason.

Months by Season

These groupings follow the Northern Hemisphere. South of the equator the pattern reverses, so December falls in summer across Australia and much of South America. Some regions divide the year more finely, which is where the six seasons model comes from, and the four-season vocabulary is set out under seasons names in English.

Month Names in Hindi

These are the standard calendar months as written in Hindi, not the traditional lunar months such as Chaitra or Vaishakh, which follow a separate system.

Festivals and Holidays by Month

May Day and the American Labor Day both honour workers, but they fall in different months and are not the same holiday.

Month Names Practice Questions

Fill in the blanks

1. ______ comes after March.
2. There are ______ months in a year.
3. ______ is the last month of the year.
4. February has ______ days in a normal year.

Put these in correct order

• June, April, May
• December, October, November
• February, January, March

Correct the spelling

• Febuary
• Agust
• Novemeber
• Septmber

Choose in or on

1. The wedding is ______ November.
2. The test is ______ 12 October.

FAQs

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