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Zodiac Sign Calculator (Western + Chinese)

What is my zodiac sign?

How it is calculated

The Western sign comes from fixed calendar dates. Each month has a cut-off day: the sign of the previous month ends before that day and the next sign begins on it. The cut-offs used are January 20, February 19, March 21, April 20, May 21, June 21, July 23, August 23, September 23, October 23, November 22 and December 22. The Chinese animal comes from the Gregorian year using a 12-year cycle: year mod 12 picks the animal, starting with monkey for remainder 0. The tool does not apply the lunar new year, so people born in January or early February may belong to the previous animal year. Cusp dates can differ by a day between sources.

Worked example

Birth date 1990-07-15. For month 7 the cut-off is the 23rd, and 15 is before it, so the sign is the one that began in June: Cancer. For the year, 1990 mod 12 = 10, which maps to Horse. The tool therefore reports Cancer and Horse.

Try this example →

Common mistakes

  • Treating a cusp date as certain: on the boundary days the sign depends on the exact time and year, and sources differ by a day.
  • Reading the Chinese animal for January or February births literally: the Chinese year starts at the lunar new year, which this tool does not apply.
  • Entering the date in day-month-year order; the field needs a valid year-month-day date.
  • Confusing the tropical (Western) sign with the sidereal one used in Vedic astrology, which is shifted by about a month.
  • Using the year of an event instead of the birth year for the animal.

About this calculator

This calculator takes a birth date and returns two different traditions at once: the Western (tropical) zodiac sign, read from the calendar date ranges the twelve signs occupy — the tropical zodiac divides the year into twelve equal segments, which no longer line up with the constellations they are named after, and the Chinese zodiac animal, based on a 12-year lunar calendar cycle that assigns each year an animal like Dragon, Tiger or Rabbit.

It is used casually by anyone curious about horoscopes, compatibility readings or personality traits associated with their sign, and around Lunar New Year by people checking which animal a given year carries. Note that the animal here is taken from the Gregorian year, while the Chinese year actually turns in late January or February — so for a birth date before that turn, the traditional animal is the previous year's.

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