Zodiac sign calculator: your star sign and its element from a birth date, plus the Chinese zodiac animal, element and yin or yang. For entertainment.
Born Sun 20 May 1990: Taurus (earth sign), on the Taurus–Gemini cusp, and in the Chinese zodiac a Metal Horse (yang). This is for entertainment; astrology has no demonstrated predictive power.
Sun 20 May 1990 falls between 20 Apr and 20 May, the dates usually given for Taurus (earth sign).
The lunar year that began in 1990 was under way on this date.
The Western sign comes from where the birth date falls in the 12 tropical sign date ranges, which divide the year from the March equinox; each sign carries a traditional element. The Chinese sign comes from the lunar year the date falls in: 12 animals and 5 elements, each element held for a yang year and then a yin year, repeat every 60 years. That lunar year starts at Chinese New Year, between 21 January and 20 February, not on 1 January.
It settles signs for birthdays near a boundary or before Chinese New Year. Someone born on 4 February 2000 is an Aquarius and, because Chinese New Year 2000 fell on 5 February, an Earth Rabbit of the year that began in 1999.
Signs are tradition and entertainment: astrology has no demonstrated power to describe personality or predict events.
Checked against: Taurus runs 20 Apr–20 May; Chinese New Year 1990 was 27 Jan (HKO tables), a Metal Horse (geng-wu) year
Checked against: Chinese New Year 2000 fell on 5 Feb (HKO tables), so 4 Feb 2000 is still the Earth Rabbit year (ji-mao) that began in 1999
Checked against: Chinese New Year 2026 is 17 Feb (HKO tables), starting the Fire Horse (bing-wu) year
Checked against: HKO table T2027e.txt lists 2027/2/6 as the 1st day of the 1st lunar month, starting the Fire Goat (ding-wei) year
As usually published: Aries 21 March–19 April, Taurus 20 April–20 May, Gemini 21 May–20 June, Cancer 21 June–22 July, Leo 23 July–22 August, Virgo 23 August–22 September, Libra 23 September–22 October, Scorpio 23 October–21 November, Sagittarius 22 November–21 December, Capricorn 22 December–19 January, Aquarius 20 January–18 February, Pisces 19 February–20 March.
Mostly because of boundary days. The Sun enters each sign at a different time each year, so a change can come a day before or after the published date, depending on the year and time zone; this calculator marks the first and last day of each sign as a cusp. Sidereal (Vedic) astrology measures signs against the stars instead, so its changes come about three weeks later: its Aries begins on 13 or 14 April (Mesha Sankranti).
At Chinese New Year, which falls on a new moon between 21 January and 20 February, not on 1 January. People born in January or early February can belong to the previous year's animal: Chinese New Year 2000 was on 5 February (Hong Kong Observatory), so 4 February 2000 is a Rabbit birthday and 5 February a Dragon one. The Fire Horse year began on 17 February 2026.
By the last digit of the lunar year: 0 or 1 is Metal, 2 or 3 Water, 4 or 5 Wood, 6 or 7 Fire and 8 or 9 Earth. Even years are yang and odd years yin. With the 12 animals that makes a 60-year cycle, so the Fire Horse year of 2026 last came round in 1966.
No. In Shawn Carlson's double-blind test (Nature, 1985, vol. 318, pp. 419–425), astrologers matched birth charts to personality profiles no better than chance. The signs have also drifted from their stars: precession has moved the March equinox point about 30° since around 130 BCE, so on 21 March the Sun now stands in the constellation Pisces, not Aries.
Accuracy depends on your inputs and the method's assumptions. Decimal arithmetic uses 50 significant digits, but estimates, numerical methods and source data can be less precise; the displayed rounding does not remove those limits. It is checked against 5 worked examples whose answers come from independent sources; for example, “20 May 1990” is checked against Taurus runs 20 Apr–20 May; Chinese New Year 1990 was 27 Jan (HKO tables), a Metal Horse (geng-wu) year.
Encyclopaedia Britannica — Zodiac (tropical sign date ranges); Hong Kong Observatory — Gregorian–lunar calendar conversion tables; Unicode CLDR / ICU Chinese calendar.
For fun. This result has no scientific basis.
5 worked examples with independently sourced answers ship with this calculator. They run in the test suite; you can run them here too.
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