How does set locale php work? and how can it work with php date?

I’m using this code: date("M j, Y", $end); to display date.

Problem is I’ve multilingual website, with wordpress + qtranslate.

Now M is problematic as it does not get translated. I read about setlocale php, anyone care explaining how this or if it would work at all?

Or maybe I should find some special qtrnaslate function that does this?