Chinese Zodiac Calculator by Birth Date

What is the Chinese zodiac?

The Chinese zodiac (生肖, shēngxiào) is a repeating 12-year cycle. Each lunar year is associated with one animal, in this fixed order:

1. 1.rat鼠shǔ
2. 2.ox牛niú
3. 3.tiger虎hǔ
4. 4.rabbit兔tù
5. 5.dragon龙lóng
6. 6.snake蛇shé
7. 7.horse马mǎ
8. 8.goat羊yáng
9. 9.monkey猴hóu
10. 10.rooster鸡jī
11. 11.dog狗gǒu
12. 12.pig猪zhū

After the pig, the cycle returns to the rat. Your zodiac sign is the animal of the lunar year in which you were born. In Chinese culture, each animal is traditionally linked with certain personality traits — these associations are cultural beliefs, not facts about any individual.

Why the zodiac year doesn’t start on January 1

The zodiac follows the traditional Chinese lunisolar calendar, so a new zodiac year begins on Chinese New Year (农历新年) — the first day of the first lunar month — which falls between January 21 and February 20 on the Gregorian calendar. It never changes on January 1.

A concrete example: Chinese New Year 2024 fell on February 10, 2024. Someone born on January 15, 2024 was born before that date, so their zodiac animal is still the rabbit (lunar year 2023) — not the dragon. The dragon year only began on February 10, 2024. This is why a calculator that only looks at the Gregorian year gets January and early-February birthdays wrong.

The 12 animals and recent lunar years

Each lunar year below begins on its Chinese New Year date, not on January 1.