Chinese Zodiac Calculator
Find your Chinese zodiac animal and element from your birth year.
Assumptions used in this calculation
- Simplified: Uses the Gregorian birth year, not the exact Chinese New Year cutoff date, which shifts each year.
About this calculator
The Chinese zodiac assigns each year one of 12 animals in a repeating cycle, plus one of 5 elements from a separate 10-year cycle, and combining those two overlapping cycles by hand, counting back from a known reference year, is easy to get wrong by a year or miscount the element pairing. This calculator takes a birth year and calculates the zodiac animal by cycling through the 12-year sequence anchored to 1900 (a known Year of the Rat), and the element by cycling through the 10-year sequence where each element spans two consecutive years. Together they produce a specific combination, like "Metal Horse," unique to a 60-year full cycle in traditional Chinese astrology. It's a quick way to find your zodiac animal and element for entertainment, gifting, or cultural interest, without needing to manually count years back from a reference point.
Worked example
Born in 1990
Result: Metal Horse
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