When I type "2 Nov" into a cell formatted as automatic it stays as "2 Nov" and the cell becomes formatted as a date, which sounds like what you actually want. It is not one of the built-in formats I can choose from but that's what happens here. This is in the US and using version 11.2
You can format the cell(s) as text before entering the "date". Or type an apostrophe at the beginning of the "date", which will format the cell as text for you (and the apostrophe will disappear). Most operations and functions will still interpret it as a date but if you sort the column it will sort as text does.
Or you can create a custom format to display the date the way you want to see it. Pre-format the cells with your custom format.