Mayan Day Sign Calculator
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Your Tzolk'in day sign, Kin number, Haab' date, Long Count and 13-day trecena from your date of birth.
Quick answer: Your Mayan day sign is the day you were born on in the 260-day Tzolk'in, a number from 1 to 13 plus one of 20 day signs. Enter your birth date above to get your Mayan day sign. It is free. For example, August 21, 2026 is 3 Chuwen, Kin 211, in the traditional count with the standard 584283 correlation. The result also shows your Haab' date, Long Count and trecena.
Your Tzolk'in day sign
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📐 Formula
The birth date is converted to a Julian Day Number, and the correlation constant (584283, the GMT value) is subtracted to give the days since the Maya creation date 4 Ajaw 8 Kumk'u (0.0.0.0.0). Number = ((days + 3) mod 13) + 1 and day sign = (days + 19) mod 20, counting Imix as 0. Kin = ((days - 101) mod 260) + 1. Haab' position = (days + 348) mod 365, as month and day within 18 months of 20 days and the 5 days of Wayeb'. The Long Count is the day count written in base 20 with a 360-day tun.
How to Use the Mayan Day Sign Calculator
Choose your birth month and day
Pick the month and day you were born from the two dropdowns. Both are required.
Enter your birth year
Type the year between 1900 and 2100.
Leave the correlation on 584283 unless you have a reason to change it
The default is the standard Goodman-Martinez-Thompson correlation. Switch to 584285 to see the Thompson variant, which makes every Maya date two days earlier.
Read your Tzolk'in date and the rest of your Maya date
See your number and day sign, your Kin, the Haab' date, the Long Count, your 13-day trecena and the Calendar Round.
What is my Mayan day sign?
Your Mayan day sign is the name of the day you were born on in the Tzolk'in, the Maya 260-day sacred calendar. Enter your birth month, day and year above and the calculator returns your Tzolk'in date, such as 3 Chuwen, which is a number from 1 to 13 and one of 20 named day signs. It also gives your Kin (your position from 1 to 260), your Haab' date, your Long Count and your 13-day trecena.
How the 260-day Tzolk'in works
The Tzolk'in pairs a cycle of 13 numbers with a cycle of 20 day names. Each day advances both by one, so day 1 is 1 Imix, day 2 is 2 Ik', and when the numbers reach 13 they start again at 1 while the names carry on. Thirteen and twenty share no common factor, so the pairs only repeat after 13 times 20 days, which is 260. That is why there are exactly 260 possible day signs, and why your birthday returns to the same Tzolk'in date once every 260 days.
Nobody is sure why the Maya counted 260 days. The leading ideas are that it follows the length of human pregnancy, the farming calendar in parts of Mesoamerica, or the gap between the Sun's two zenith passes at some Maya latitudes. It is the oldest part of the Maya calendar system and is still kept by Maya day-keepers in highland Guatemala.
The 20 Mayan day signs and their meanings
This table lists the twenty day signs in order, using the standard spelling, with the usual English translation. The last column is a popular reading. The translations are standard; the readings come from modern day-keeper and popular traditions and vary from one source to another, so treat them as one view among several. The Dreamspell column is explained further down.
| # | Day sign | Translation | Dreamspell seal | Popular reading |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Imix | Crocodile / Water Lily | Red Dragon | Primordial creation, nurturing beginnings and fertile waters. |
| 2 | Ik' | Wind | White Wind | Breath, life force, communication and spirit. |
| 3 | Ak'bal | Night | Blue Night | Darkness, dreams and quiet introspection. |
| 4 | K'an | Seed / Net | Yellow Seed | Ripening abundance, potential and growth toward harvest. |
| 5 | Chikchan | Celestial Serpent | Red Serpent | Vital energy, wisdom and instinct. |
| 6 | Kimi | Death | White World-Bridger | Transformation, an ending that clears the way for renewal. |
| 7 | Manik' | Deer | Blue Hand | Healing, gentleness and sure-footed guidance. |
| 8 | Lamat | Star / Venus | Yellow Star | Abundance, beauty and the ripening of the harvest. |
| 9 | Muluk | Water / Jade | Red Moon | Emotional depth, purification and offering. |
| 10 | Ok | Dog | White Dog | Loyalty, guidance and faithful companionship. |
| 11 | Chuwen | Monkey | Blue Monkey | Creativity, playfulness and artisan skill. |
| 12 | Eb' | Road / Rain | Yellow Human | The human path, cooperation and destiny. |
| 13 | Ben | Reed / Young Maize | Red Skywalker | Leadership, authority and growth reaching skyward. |
| 14 | Ix | Jaguar | White Wizard | Earth magic, strength and intuition. |
| 15 | Men | Eagle | Blue Eagle | Vision, ambition and a far-seeing view. |
| 16 | Kib' | Owl / Wax | Yellow Warrior | Ancestral wisdom, introspection and receiving knowledge. |
| 17 | Kaban | Earth | Red Earth | Movement, thought and the force of the land. |
| 18 | Etz'nab | Flint | White Mirror | Clarity, truth-telling and decisive action. |
| 19 | Kawak | Storm | Blue Storm | Purification and renewal through upheaval. |
| 20 | Ajaw | Lord / Sun | Yellow Sun | Completion, sovereignty and spiritual enlightenment. |
If you landed here looking for the meaning of a single sign, the table covers them all: Night (Ak'bal), Death (Kimi), Jaguar (Ix), Seed (K'an), Owl (Kib'), Serpent (Chikchan), Monkey (Chuwen), Deer (Manik'), Crocodile (Imix), Storm (Kawak) and the rest. Death is the one most people worry about. In the popular reading it means transformation and the end of one cycle before another begins, and it is not a bad omen.
Your full Maya date: Tzolk'in, Haab', Calendar Round and Long Count
A date in the Maya system had several parts. The Tzolk'in gives the number and day sign. The Haab' is a separate 365-day count: 18 months of 20 days plus 5 closing days called Wayeb'. Put together, the pair is called the Calendar Round, for example 3 Chuwen 4 Mol, and it repeats only every 52 years. The Long Count is a running day total, written as five numbers (baktun.katun.tun.winal.kin), that places the date in the long run of history. The calculator gives you all four.
Worked example: August 21, 2026
The Julian Day Number for August 21, 2026 is 2461274. Subtract the correlation constant 584283 and you get 1,876,991 days since the Maya creation date, which is 13.0.13.15.11 in the Long Count. The Tzolk'in position works out to Kin 211, which is 3 Chuwen (number 3, Chuwen the Monkey). The Haab' date is 4 Mol, so the Calendar Round reads 3 Chuwen 4 Mol. The 13-day trecena that contains it runs from 1 Muluk to 13 Imix.
Check against a known date: December 21, 2012
The famous Maya period ending was December 21, 2012, written 13.0.0.0.0 in the Long Count and 4 Ajaw 3 K'ank'in in the Tzolk'in and Haab'. Enter that date and the calculator returns exactly those values. The count starts from the creation date, 4 Ajaw 8 Kumk'u, which is 0.0.0.0.0 in the Long Count. Thirteen baktuns (1,872,000 days) later, the count reaches 13.0.0.0.0, and the Tzolk'in is back on 4 Ajaw.
The 13-day trecena (wavespell)
A trecena is a block of 13 consecutive days that runs from number 1 to number 13 of the Tzolk'in count. It is named for the day sign it starts on. Anyone born on 3 Chuwen is in the trecena that starts on 1 Muluk, and is on day 3 of 13. The trecena is a traditional unit of the Tzolk'in. Some modern systems call the same block a wavespell; this page keeps to the traditional name.
Traditional Tzolk'in versus the Dreamspell galactic signature
Two different calendars both get called "Mayan" online. This calculator uses the traditional Tzolk'in, tied to the real Maya calendar by the correlation constant. The Dreamspell is a separate system created by José Argüelles and Lloydine Argüelles, started in 1987 and published as a board game in 1990. Its galactic signature is a day sign plus one of 13 named tones. It uses its own 13-moon calendar of 28-day months, treats July 25 as a Day Out of Time and skips February 29. Because it keeps its own count, the same birthday can give a different sign in the Dreamspell than in the traditional Tzolk'in. Neither is a calculation error. They are two systems.
If you came for a galactic signature, this page does not compute one. What it does give you is the traditional date, and the table above shows the Dreamspell seal name that sits at each of the 20 positions. The Dreamspell's 13 tones are:
| Number | Dreamspell tone |
|---|---|
| 1 | Magnetic |
| 2 | Lunar |
| 3 | Electric |
| 4 | Self-Existing |
| 5 | Overtone |
| 6 | Rhythmic |
| 7 | Resonant |
| 8 | Galactic |
| 9 | Solar |
| 10 | Planetary |
| 11 | Spectral |
| 12 | Crystal |
| 13 | Cosmic |
In the traditional calendar the numbers 1 to 13 are just numbers, with no tone names attached.
Mayan zodiac, Mayan astrology and the Mayan birth chart
Searches for a "Mayan zodiac calculator" or "Mayan birth chart" are looking for the Tzolk'in. The Maya calendar does not have twelve sun signs like the Western zodiac. Your Tzolk'in date, with your Haab' date, is the nearest thing to a Mayan birth chart. For a Western chart, with the sun sign and more, the birth chart calculator explains how that is worked out, and the zodiac sign calculator gives your sun sign by date of birth. Another birth-date system worth a look is the Chinese zodiac calculator.
Why there are two correlation constants (584283 and 584285)
The Maya recorded dates in their own count. To place those dates on our calendar, scholars use a correlation constant, a Julian Day Number for the creation date. The most widely accepted value is 584283, the Goodman-Martinez-Thompson (GMT) correlation. A variant, 584285, is also in the literature and is attributed to Thompson and Lounsbury. The two differ by two days, which shifts every Maya date by two days. This calculator uses 584283 by default and lets you switch.
| Correlation | Tzolk'in date | Haab' date | Trecena |
|---|---|---|---|
| 584283 (GMT) | 3 Chuwen | 4 Mol | 1 Muluk to 13 Imix |
| 584285 (Thompson) | 1 Muluk | 2 Mol | 1 Muluk to 13 Imix |
Other correlations in the literature differ by much more. The 584283 value fits Maya lunar records well, and is supported by Tzolk'in dates in colonial-era Guatemalan sources that can be matched to European calendar dates.
Using this calculator in the US, UK, Australia and Canada
The Maya calendar is a count of days, so the result is the same in all four countries for the same calendar date. Enter the birth date as written on the birth certificate, with the month chosen by name, which avoids the day-first and month-first mix-up between the US and the UK, Australia and Canada. The calculator uses your calendar date as it is, so a late-night birth belongs to the date you enter. People searching for a Mayan star sign or Mayan birth sign are looking for the same Tzolk'in day sign.
Other birth-date calculators
If you want your age on a given day, the age calculator will tell you. The date calculator adds or subtracts days, which is handy for counting forward to your next Tzolk'in return date, 260 days after any date.
Frequently Asked Questions
Enter your birth month, day and year in the calculator. It returns your Tzolk'in date, a number from 1 to 13 and one of 20 day signs such as Chuwen or Ajaw, along with your Kin from 1 to 260. This is the traditional Maya sacred calendar, not a Western zodiac sign.
Yes. It is free, needs no sign-up and asks for no name or email. It runs in your browser, so your birth date is not sent anywhere.
The Maya calendar has no twelve-sign zodiac like the Western one. The closest equivalent is your Tzolk'in day sign, one of 20 signs combined with a number from 1 to 13. This calculator gives your Tzolk'in date by date of birth, plus your Haab' date, Long Count and trecena.
The Tzolk'in is the traditional 260-day count kept by Maya day-keepers. The Dreamspell is a separate calendar created in 1987 by José Argüelles and Lloydine Argüelles. It pairs the 20 signs with 13 named tones to make a galactic signature, uses 13 moons of 28 days and skips February 29. The two counts do not line up, so the same birthday can give different results.
They are a Dreamspell idea: Magnetic, Lunar, Electric, Self-Existing, Overtone, Rhythmic, Resonant, Galactic, Solar, Planetary, Spectral, Crystal and Cosmic. In the traditional Tzolk'in, the same positions are the numbers 1 to 13 with no tone names. This calculator gives the traditional number.
Kimi, translated as Death, is the sixth of the 20 day signs. In the popular readings it stands for transformation: an ending that clears the way for something new. It is not treated as a bad omen. The readings vary between traditions and are not predictions.
They are Ak'bal (Night, dreams and introspection), Ix (Jaguar, intuition), K'an (Seed, potential and harvest), Kib' (Owl, ancestral wisdom), Chikchan (Celestial Serpent, vital energy), Chuwen (Monkey, creativity), Manik' (Deer, healing), Imix (Crocodile or Water Lily, beginnings) and Kawak (Storm, renewal). These are popular readings, and day-keeper traditions differ.
Enter today's date in the calculator and it returns the Tzolk'in date for that day. The count moves on by one sign and one number every day, so the day sign changes at the same time as the calendar date, and today's date comes around again every 260 days.
In the traditional count, your Kin is your position in the 260-day Tzolk'in, from 1 (1 Imix) to 260 (13 Ajaw). In the Dreamspell, Kin means something similar but is counted differently, so a Kin number from another site may not match this one.
A trecena is a block of 13 days that runs from 1 to 13 and is named for the day sign it starts on. The calculator shows the one your birthday falls in, for example 1 Muluk to 13 Imix. Wavespell is the Dreamspell name for the same block.
584283 is the Goodman-Martinez-Thompson correlation, the most widely accepted way to match the Maya calendar to ours. A variant, 584285, shifts every date by two days and is selectable above. If a different site gives you a different sign for your birthday, it is most likely using the Dreamspell, which is a different count, or another correlation.
The Haab' is the Maya 365-day year of 18 months of 20 days plus 5 closing days. A Tzolk'in date and a Haab' date together make the Calendar Round, which repeats every 52 years. The Long Count is a running count of days since the creation date, written as five numbers. The calculator shows all three.
There is no standard, sourced compatibility table for the Tzolk'in signs, and the charts online are mostly modern inventions, so this page does not publish one. For a compatibility reading between two Western signs, see the zodiac compatibility calculator.
Yes. The traditional Tzolk'in counts every day, including February 29, so a leap day has its own Tzolk'in date. The Dreamspell skips February 29, which is one reason the two systems drift apart.
Yes. Maya day-keepers in the Guatemalan highlands, especially K'iche' communities, still keep the 260-day count for ceremony and naming. Its day signs and the reading attached to them are living practice, not a historical curiosity.
Sources & Methodology
There is no government or standards body for the Maya calendar, but the calendar arithmetic can be checked. The Julian Day Number of the birth date minus the correlation constant gives the day count since the creation date, 4 Ajaw 8 Kumk'u, which is 0.0.0.0.0. The Tzolk'in position, Haab' date and Long Count all follow from that count. We checked the arithmetic against the December 21, 2012 period ending (13.0.0.0.0, 4 Ajaw 3 K'ank'in), and the Long Count for August 21, 2026 against a hand count in days.
The correlation 584283 is the Goodman-Martinez-Thompson value. The Wikipedia article on the Mesoamerican Long Count calendar lists the published correlations, including the 584285 variant, and notes that Tzolk'in dates in the colonial Annals of the Cakchiquels support 584283 and that it matches the lunar data in the classic inscriptions. Sign translations follow the standard Tzolk'in table. The readings in the last column of the sign table are popular interpretations, not scholarly findings, and vary between sources. Dreamspell details (13 tones, 20 seals, 13 moons, February 29 skipped) are from Wikipedia's Dreamspell article. The Dreamspell is a modern invention, not a Maya practice.