Chinese Gender Predictor (Chinese Gender Chart Calculator)

How it works

lunar (Chinese) age = lunar year of conception − lunar year of mother's birth + 1 · lunar month = month of the Chinese calendar on the conception date (a leap month counts as its number) · prediction = traditional chart cell [lunar age 18–45, lunar month 1–12]

The Chinese gender chart, said to date from the Qing dynasty, crosses the mother's lunar age with the lunar month of conception. Lunar age counts a baby as 1 at birth and adds a year at each Chinese New Year, so it is usually 1–2 years more than the Western age; the calculator converts both dates to the Chinese calendar for you. It is fun, but it is folklore: when researchers checked it against 2.8 million Swedish births, it predicted the sex correctly about 50% of the time — the same as guessing.

Worked example

A mother born on May 10, 1996 who conceived on May 1, 2026: both dates fall after Chinese New Year of their year, so her lunar age is 2026 − 1996 + 1 = 31, and May 1, 2026 is in the 3rd lunar month. Row 31, month 3 of the chart says Boy — a 50/50 guess in reality.

Sources: University of Michigan: Chinese lunar calendar — don't paint the nursery just yet (Villamor et al., 2010)

Frequently asked questions