Why do Americans do the date differently?

[Rockchimp69]

Can some American escapists tell me why you guys do the date like this : month/day/year
instead of in order like this: day/month/year?
(I would have just google'd this but its better to get a wider range of answers and I wouldn't know how to phrase the question)

 

[Corven]

We like to be different. *shrug* honestly I have no idea why.

 

[Zef Otter]

personal pref, I think.

 

[Jedoro]

Smallest variety in measurement first, I guess. Only 12 months, but up to 31 days and at least 2011 years

 

[V8 Ninja]

Sorry, I'm American and I can't help you there. Maybe it's because we think we're not special enough?

 

[Crolley]

Maybe it's to bring it in line with (what might be) the most common way Americans say it. "Today is January first, of two thousand eleven."

Maybe the government considers the month more important than the day on their documents (maybe for organizational and cataloging purposes), so they format it like that.

Honestly, I don't know.

 

[Wolfe90]

I've always wondered this myself.

 

[SinisterGehe]

Why do some people use the imperial weight system, instead of metric?
Why do some people countries use 12 hours clock system (am/pm), instead of 24 hour (0-23,59) system?

Meh, I think it is just a tradition that got stuck or something... I don't mind how do you write the dates long as they don't start saying my system of D/M/Y is wrong.

They enjoy making things feel like their own. They do it with language too. Make minor changes so they can feel like they're not just copying a country most of them see as their own personal ***** nation.

Just like the Romans did... They copied everything, including their gods, from other civilisations.

 

[Palademon]

When they say a date out loud they also happen to say it like that e.g. May 24th, instead of 24th of May

 

[Vern]

I've thought about this, and I the best answer I came up with is that it's more natural in speech to state the month before the day. For example August twelfth, nineteen ninety eight, as opposed to the twelfth of August, nineteen ninety eight. In that sense I agree with our habit of listing months before days, since in general conversation most people will say the month before the day. It's just a preference, but I think it sounds better in casual speech to say (month) (day) than to say the (day) of (month).

 

[nunqual]

Cuz it's been too long and now they can't change it without screwing even more stuff up. It's just a date system.

 

[Eclectic Dreck]

The military still uses the day/month/year system. To this day I write dates as (using today as an example) 1 JAN 11.

As far as why we write it that way, I don't have a clue. It is fairly arbitrary either way though it does add an element of confusion when reading dates since there is no set standard. From a personal perspective, it makes sense to put the day first. That is the most important part after all. I am rarely curious about the Month or Year but the actual date is something I have to keep track of. As such, it seems like it should go first.

 

[FallenJellyDoughnut]

They enjoy making things feel like their own. They do it with language too. Make minor changes so they can feel like they're not just copying a country most of them see as their own personal ***** nation.

This.
America is like that angsty teenager who acts all different because it makes him feel rebel or something.

 

[Baradiel]

Its the way most Americans say it. In Britain, most people say "the first of January", that is just the way the *cough* English language has developed over here. In America, it seems to be that "January first" fits better with the American way of speech. I personally think it sounds stupid, but I havent been brought up with that style of speech.

Basically, it's a dialect.

 

[vgpclife]

My guess is it probably goes back to when the US was first forming. They decided they wanted to be different than England, so they adopted a lot of different things like driving opposite side of the road, not using the metric system, etc.

 

[smithy_2045]

dd/mm/yyyy or yyyy/mm/dd are acceptable because they follow a logical order. mm/dd/yyyy is just whacked.

 

[Kortney]

I've thought about this, and I the best answer I came up with is that it's more natural in speech to state the month before the day. For example August twelfth, nineteen ninety eight, as opposed to the twelfth of August, nineteen ninety eight.

I can tell you with confidence that that is a very American thing to do. People in England and the Commonwealth say "The twelfth of August". So I think your theory about it being more natural is speech is incorrect because it's only that way in the USA.

A more likely theory is that the USA in it's early days wanted to establish itself as different to England. Hence altering the language and it's spelling, driving on a different side of the road, etc. Just little things that they felt furthered their independence.