The following SQLite3 (Windows 11) query on sakila-db..

SELECT monthname(rental_date) rental_month, count( * ) num_rentals FROM rental WHERE rental_date BETWEEN '2005-05-01' AND '2005-08-01' GROUP BY monthname(rental_date);

produces..

Error while executing SQL query on database 'sakila': no such function: monthname

..so monthname function in MySQL but not SQLite3?

I don’t know about MySQL, but that is not among SQLite’s Date And Time Functions.

You could make your own twelve row table and use a JOIN to get what you want.

Quite correct, it doesn't.

The problem is that Monthname() (or its possible equivalent placeholder within strftime()) would require localization data, since the names of months may differ for every language/country.

SQLite does not hold any localization formatting data, and doing so inside itself would be a gross violation of the "Lite" moniker.

You are however easily able to add your own functions, or tables, containing all the localization and month-names your heart desires (obviously), but it is not a standard core function of SQLite at this point.

As a workaround, I like cj's macro, in SQLite this slightly bulky function will work:

  substr('--JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec', CAST( strftime('%m', {reference_date}) AS INTEGER) * 3, 3)

or, for full month-names:
  trim(substr('-------January   February March    April    May      June     July     August   SeptemberOctober  November December', CAST( strftime('%m', {reference_date}) AS INTEGER) * 9, 9))

Here is a script making a mock-up of your database, two possible views to use and queries that will work using those views:

CREATE TABLE rental(rental_date);

INSERT INTO rental VALUES
 ('2005-05-01')
,('2005-05-15')
,('2005-05-20')
,('2005-06-01')
,('2005-06-02')
,('2005-07-01')
,('2005-08-01')
,('2005-08-02')
,('2005-08-03')
,('2005-08-15')
;


-- A view based on your table that calculates the month-name for every entry (based on cj's macro)

CREATE VIEW rental_months AS
SELECT rental_date,
       substr('--JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec',CAST(strftime('%m',rental_date) AS INTEGER)*3,3) AS rental_month
  FROM rental
;


-- Your query using the view

SELECT rental_month, count(*) AS num_rentals
  FROM rental_months
 WHERE rental_date BETWEEN '2005-05-01' AND '2005-08-01'
 GROUP BY rental_month;

  -- rental_month|num_rentals
  -- ------------|---------
  --    Aug      |    1    
  --    Jul      |    1    
  --    Jun      |    2    
  --    May      |    3    



-- A view of the months, in any language you please (I used a mix):

CREATE VIEW month_names AS
SELECT  0 AS idx, 'Invalid-Month' AS month_name UNION ALL
SELECT  1, 'January'   UNION ALL
SELECT  2, 'February'  UNION ALL
SELECT  3, 'March'     UNION ALL
SELECT  4, 'Avril'     UNION ALL
SELECT  5, 'May'       UNION ALL
SELECT  6, 'Junes'     UNION ALL
SELECT  7, 'Julius'    UNION ALL
SELECT  8, 'Augustus'  UNION ALL
SELECT  9, 'Septembre' UNION ALL
SELECT 10, 'Ottobre'   UNION ALL
SELECT 11, 'Novem'     UNION ALL
SELECT 12, 'Decem'
;


-- Your query mapped against the view:

SELECT month_name AS rental_month, count(*) AS num_rentals
  FROM rental
  JOIN month_names ON idx = CAST(strftime('%m',rental_date) AS INTEGER)
 WHERE rental_date BETWEEN '2005-05-01' AND '2005-08-01'
 GROUP BY month_name
;

  -- rental_month|num_rentals
  -- ------------|---------
  -- Augustus    |    1    
  -- Julius      |    1    
  -- Junes       |    2    
  -- May         |    3    

Thank you all. Very informative, but back to MySQL Workbench I go..

Hmm that doesn't seem to work for January?

sqlite> select trim(substr('-------January   February March    April    May      June     July     August   SeptemberOctober  November December', CAST( strftime('%m','2022-01-01') AS INTEGER) * 9, 9)) month;
month
anuary

Add another '-' preceding January and another space before February.

This is called a fencepost error.

select value, 
       substr('--------January  February March    April    May      June     July     August   SeptemberOctober  November December', value * 9, 9)
  from generate_series 
 where start=0 and stop=12;
┌───────┬──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ value │ substr('--------January  February March    April    May      │
├───────┼──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ 0     │ '--------'                                                   │
│ 1     │ 'January  '                                                  │
│ 2     │ 'February '                                                  │
│ 3     │ 'March    '                                                  │
│ 4     │ 'April    '                                                  │
│ 5     │ 'May      '                                                  │
│ 6     │ 'June     '                                                  │
│ 7     │ 'July     '                                                  │
│ 8     │ 'August   '                                                  │
│ 9     │ 'September'                                                  │
│ 10    │ 'October  '                                                  │
│ 11    │ 'November '                                                  │
│ 12    │ 'December'                                                   │
└───────┴──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
VM-steps: 120
Run Time: real 0.022 user 0.015625 sys 0.000000
sqlite>

Yes.

On the gripping had, however, I would create a table containing the data and use a join operation (preferably a trailing LEFT JOIN) to get the name, allowing the Query Planner the freedom to not perform useless function calls to operationalize data which is intended for presentation and would simply substitute one value for another though complicated early transmorgification.

Of course, that depends on whether you consider a large dataset to mean tens of rows or billions of rows ... this is a case where early optimization should be applied.