Why do Americans write the month before the day?

[BillF]

http://www.theguardian.com/news/datablog/2013/dec/16/why-do-americans-write-the-month-before-the-day

[Big Beat Steve]

:lol:

The article linked above and particularly the comments to that article sum it up. Nothing else to add.

[kinuta]

Here it's Y/M/D.

However you have to contend with two ways of expressing the year. This year is 2013 or Heisei　25. Every time an emperor pops his clogs the calendar is reset to zero and a new name is attached. The Imperial Household Agency apparently dreams them up. To show how ridiculous and confusing this is, even my missus, who is Japanese, wasn't sure of the Heisei date. Another mad concept is that Sunday is the first day of the week so caution is always needed when looking at back to front calendars.

[Head Man]

The map suggests that Afghanistan and most of Africa don't seem to know what day of the week it is!

Not much new there, then.

[Kevin Bresnahan]

One thing I always wondered about this... doesn't it make sense to abbreviate something said out loud as "December sixteenth, two-thousand and thirteen" to 12/16/13? Does the rest of the world state dates differently from the US? I can see if you state today's date as "the sixteenth of December, two-thousand and thirteen", then 16/12/13 makes sense. Is that how it's done there?

Numerical dates are simply abbreviations of stated dates and abbreviations typically follow syntax. No one would abbreviate "emergency room" as RE.

[Big Beat Steve]

Does the rest of the world state dates differently from the US? I can see if you state today's date as "the sixteenth of December, two-thousand and thirteen", then 16/12/13 makes sense. Is that how it's done there?

Two things:

1) Yes. That's how it is spoken in other parts of the world, including non-English-speaking parts of the world.

2) Note that it is not the "rest" of the world, you know.

It's probably this schism between US and UK English that is quite baffling to some, particularly since IIRC the "US" order used to exist in the UK (and their sphere of influence) too (at least if the day and month but not the year were mentioned) but has long been superseded by something that follows the orders of "magnitude" more logically, i.e. either start out with the smallest unit and work your way to the largest, or vice versa. But not a mishmash. Or would you use the same mishmashed sequence when it comes to units of length, for example, e.g. when you have to use yards, feet and inches?

Like others have said before, if you want to put the month before the day, then probably the Scandinavian order (like 2013-12-16 for today) would be the most logical one in the long run.

[ejp626]

Poor Canada is even more exceptional in that all three forms of date can apparently be found. That's what comes from being browbeat by the UK, the US and increasingly China.

Though in truth, I've normally seen DD-MM-YYYY.

However, it is true that my (former) manager insisted that file names for final drafts all start with the date the document was finalized in the YYYY-MM-DD convention.

[AllenLowe]

the real problem is on March 3.

[JSngry]

I went to work with no socks on one day, left home already late, figured I'd save time. Husteled in, sat down, and got to work right away.

One lady stood and stared for a while and finally said, "Jim, I think it's odd that you don't have any socks on."

"Nancy." I said (for that was indeed her name), "don't you find it even more odd that, not only do you look at people's ankles to see if they're wearing socks or not, but that you have nothing more productive to do with your time here in this office surrounded by work but to stop said work and issue a verbal commentary about my lack of socks?"

Well, everybody else LOL-ed, Nancy got pissed as hell, but everybody went back to work, and even if it only mattered half-a-damn, that work was still exponentially more important than who did or did not have socks on while it was getting done.

[erwbol]

Americans write the month before the day. Godless European and Russian Socialists/Communists write the day before the month. Therefore God exists!

[AllenLowe]

january 1

february 2

april 4

May 5

June 6

July 7

August 8

September 9

October 10

November 11

December 12

January 13

[xybert]

Poor Canada is even more exceptional in that all three forms of date can apparently be found. That's what comes from being browbeat by the UK, the US and increasingly China.

Though in truth, I've normally seen DD-MM-YYYY.

However, it is true that my (former) manager insisted that file names for final drafts all start with the date the document was finalized in the YYYY-MM-DD convention.

Day Month Year here, but at work we file stuff under Year Month Day too...

[skeith]

We'll put the day first when the Brits stop telling us how many stones they weigh!!!!

[A Lark Ascending]

Year month day seems more sensible to me.

Storing minutes of meetings is a bugger any other way. Made worse with terms that start in September. I always name them 13_09_12, 13_09_26 etc so I don't get chaos when it gets to Jan 2014. But other people don't and I get confused.

Edited December 16, 2013 by A Lark Ascending

[jazztrain]

This might be of interest: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Date_format_by_country

[Neal Pomea]

The 7th of December, 1941. A date that will live in infamy.

[skeith]

The 7th of December, 1941. A date that will live in infamy.

Actually it is the 16th of December 2013 for your information!!!

[JSngry]

I believe there was some coy referencing going on.

[GregK]

No wonder I was so confused when I left Canada for America. Wasn't sure what month/day it was

[skeith]

I hope no Brits or for that matter Neal were offended by my attempt at humor!!!!

[Neal Pomea]

Not at all, skeith! I understood the humor (humour).

[JSngry]

Humour is at the centre of my universe, them and misplaced and/or unnecessary vowels.

[Mike Schwartz]

It's just the right thing to do, like driving on the RIGHT side of the road!

[danasgoodstuff]

Because we can!

[Jazzmoose]

Because that's the way we do it, and no sidewindin' bushwackin', hornswagglin' cracker croaker is gonna tell us different!