Chinese Gender Chart

The Chinese Gender Chart is a grid with lunar ages running down the left side and lunar months running across the top. Each cell in the grid contains a prediction: either Boy or Girl. Here is exactly how to use it:

1. Find your lunar age at conception. Look at the left-hand column of the chart. This column lists lunar ages from 18 to 45 (on the standard version). Find the row that matches your lunar age at the time you conceived. Remember, lunar age is not the same as your Western age — see the section below on understanding lunar age.
2. Find your lunar month of conception. Look at the top row of the chart. This row lists lunar months from 1 to 12. Find the column that matches the lunar month in which you conceived. Again, lunar months do not correspond directly to January through December — see the section below on understanding lunar months.
3. Find where the row and column intersect. Follow your lunar age row across and your lunar month column down. The cell where they meet contains the chart's prediction.
4. Read the prediction. The cell will show either "B" (Boy) or "G" (Girl) on some versions of the chart. Other versions use blue for Boy and pink for Girl, or display the words "Boy" and "Girl" in full. On our chart above, blue cells indicate Boy and pink cells indicate Girl.

For example, if your lunar age at conception was 28 and you conceived in Lunar Month 3, you would find the row for age 28, the column for month 3, and look at the cell where they meet. The color or letter in that cell is the chart's prediction for your baby's gender.

If you do not want to do the lunar conversion manually, our Chinese Gender Calendar calculator does it automatically. Simply enter your birthday and conception date in the regular Gregorian calendar, and the calculator converts both to the lunar calendar before looking up the chart.

One of the most important — and most commonly misunderstood — aspects of the Chinese Gender Chart is that it uses lunar age (also called "Chinese age" or "nominal age"), not Western age. The difference between these two age systems is the single biggest source of errors when people use the chart.

In the Western age system, you are 0 years old at birth and gain one year on each birthday. In the Chinese lunar age system, two things are different:

• You are "1" at birth. In traditional Chinese culture, the time spent in the womb counts as the first year of life. A newborn baby is already considered one year old.
• You gain a year at Chinese New Year, not on your birthday. Instead of celebrating your age change on the anniversary of your birth, you (along with everyone else in China) gain one year of age when the Chinese (Lunar) New Year begins. This typically falls between late January and mid-February on the Gregorian calendar.

These two differences combine to make your lunar age anywhere from 1 to 2 years higher than your Western age, depending on where your birthday falls relative to Chinese New Year. Here are some examples to illustrate:

Notice that a person born in early January 1994 (before Chinese New Year 1994) has a lunar age that is 2 years higher than their Western age. This is because they were already "1" at birth, and because their birth falls before Chinese New Year in the Gregorian year, they gain an extra year at that New Year. Getting the lunar age wrong by even one year will change which row you are looking at on the chart, potentially giving you a different prediction.

For a complete explanation of how lunar age is calculated, see our detailed guide to lunar age.

The columns on the Chinese Gender Chart represent lunar months 1 through 12. These are months according to the traditional Chinese lunar calendar, which tracks time by the phases of the moon. A lunar month begins on a new moon and ends just before the next new moon, lasting approximately 29 or 30 days.

Because the lunar year is about 11 days shorter than the Gregorian (solar) year, the correspondence between lunar months and Gregorian months shifts every year. However, the rough alignment is generally as follows:

Important: These are approximations only. The exact start and end date of each lunar month varies from year to year, sometimes by as much as three weeks. For example, Lunar Month 1 might start on January 22 in one year and February 10 in another. If your conception date falls near the boundary between two Gregorian months, you must check the actual lunar calendar for that specific year to determine which lunar month it falls in.

This is especially important because a date like "March 20" might fall in Lunar Month 2 in one year and Lunar Month 3 in another year. Using the wrong month will point you to a different column on the chart, potentially changing the prediction. For a full explanation of the Chinese lunar calendar system, see our Chinese lunar calendar guide.

The Chinese Gender Chart looks simple, but getting an accurate reading requires careful attention to two lunar-calendar conversions. Here are the most common mistakes people make, along with explanations of why they matter:

Mistake 1: Using Western Age Instead of Lunar Age

This is the single most common error. If you are 30 years old by the Western calendar, you might look at row 30 on the chart. But your lunar age is likely 31 or 32, which means you should be looking at a different row entirely. Since adjacent rows on the chart often have different predictions for the same month, this mistake can easily change your result. Always convert your Western age to lunar age before using the chart.

Mistake 2: Using Gregorian Months Instead of Lunar Months

If you conceived in March, you might look at column 3 on the chart, assuming that column 3 represents March. But the columns on the chart represent lunar months, not Gregorian months. March might fall in Lunar Month 2 or Lunar Month 3, depending on the year. Using the Gregorian month number directly is a common shortcut that often leads to incorrect results.

Mistake 3: Using Your Current Age Instead of Age at Conception

The chart asks for the mother's lunar age at the time of conception, not her current age. If you conceived at lunar age 31 but are now lunar age 32 (because Chinese New Year has passed or because your birthday has passed), you should still use 31 when looking at the chart. This mistake is especially common when checking the chart after the baby is born or late in pregnancy.

Mistake 4: Forgetting That Lunar Age Changes at Chinese New Year

In the Western system, your age changes on your birthday. In the Chinese lunar system, everyone's age changes at Chinese New Year. If you conceived in January 2026 (before Chinese New Year on February 17, 2026), your lunar age at conception was one year less than it became after Chinese New Year. This is easy to overlook and can shift your result to a different row on the chart.

Mistake 5: Using an Online Converter Without Verifying

Many websites offer lunar age and lunar month converters, but not all of them are accurate. Some use simplified approximations that do not account for the actual Chinese lunar calendar dates for the specific year in question. If you want to be confident in your conversion, cross-check with at least two sources, or use our Chinese Gender Calendar calculator which uses verified astronomical data from the Hong Kong Observatory for accurate lunar date conversion.

Even if you convert your age and month correctly, certain situations create ambiguity in how to use the chart. These edge cases are worth understanding because they come up more often than you might expect.

Conception on the Boundary Between Two Lunar Months

Each lunar month begins on a new moon. If your estimated conception date falls on or very close to a new moon (within a day or two), it may be difficult to determine which lunar month the conception belongs to. In practice, ovulation and conception are themselves estimates for most people — few parents know their exact conception date to the day. If your date falls near a lunar month boundary, you can check the chart for both possible months to see whether the prediction changes. If both months give the same result, the boundary does not matter. If they differ, the chart simply cannot give you a definitive answer for that specific case.

Leap Months (Run Yue)

The Chinese lunar calendar inserts a leap month (run yue) approximately every two to three years to keep the lunar calendar synchronized with the solar year. A leap month is an extra month inserted after one of the regular 12 months. For example, in some years there is a Leap Month 4 inserted between regular Month 4 and regular Month 5.

The standard Chinese Gender Chart has 12 columns — one for each regular lunar month. It does not have a column for any leap month. If your conception falls during a leap month, the traditional approach is to treat it as if it fell in the preceding regular month. So conception in Leap Month 4 would use the column for regular Month 4. Some practitioners instead assign the leap month to the following regular month. There is no universally agreed-upon rule, which is one of the chart's inherent ambiguities.

Conception Before Chinese New Year in the Same Gregorian Year

Chinese New Year falls on a different Gregorian date each year, anywhere from January 21 to February 20. If you conceived in January or early February, you need to check whether your conception date fell before or after Chinese New Year. This affects your lunar age (because everyone gains a year at Chinese New Year) and possibly which lunar year your conception month belongs to.

For example, if Chinese New Year 2026 falls on February 17, and you conceived on February 1, 2026, your conception falls in the final weeks of the previous lunar year (Year of the Snake had not yet started). Your lunar age at conception would be one year less than it became after February 17. This is one of the trickiest edge cases and a common source of error.

IVF and Other Assisted Conception

If you conceived through IVF, you have precise medical dates for fertilization and embryo transfer. For detailed guidance on which date to use, see our dedicated Chinese Gender Calendar for IVF page.

If you search for the Chinese Gender Chart online, you will notice that not every source shows exactly the same chart. While the core structure is always the same — a grid with lunar ages on one axis and lunar months on the other — there are several variations worth knowing about.

Age Range Variations

The most commonly reproduced version of the chart covers lunar ages 18 through 45 and lunar months 1 through 12, creating a grid of 336 cells. This is the version displayed on this page and on most reputable pregnancy websites. However, some versions show a narrower age range (18 to 40), while a few extend to age 48 or even 50. The cells within the overlapping age range are usually identical; the extended versions simply add rows at the top or bottom.

Prediction Discrepancies

In rare cases, two versions of the chart will show a different prediction (Boy vs. Girl) for the same age-month combination. These discrepancies are relatively uncommon — the vast majority of cells are identical across versions — but they do exist. The discrepancies likely arise from differences in the source material (different Chinese almanacs or different internet reproductions) and from transcription errors that have propagated as the chart was copied and shared millions of times.

Display Format Variations

The chart's visual presentation varies widely. Some versions use "B" and "G" letters. Others use blue and pink colors. Some use Chinese characters for Boy (男) and Girl (女). Some use checkmarks, dots, or icons. The underlying data is the same regardless of how it is displayed. On our chart, we use blue cells for Boy and pink cells for Girl, which is the most intuitive format for English-speaking parents.

The "Original" Chart Question

Many websites claim to have the "original" or "authentic" Chinese Gender Chart. In reality, no one can identify a single original source document. The chart as we know it today is a folk tradition that was transmitted orally, through almanacs, and later through the internet. There is no master copy sitting in a museum. The version most commonly reproduced online has become the de facto standard through sheer ubiquity, but calling it "the original" is a marketing claim rather than a historical fact. For more on this topic, see our guide to the original Chinese Gender Chart and the history of the Chinese Gender Calendar.