What is my birth star?

The short answer

Your birth star is your nakshatra

Your birth star, or janma nakshatra, is the nakshatra the Moon occupied at the moment you were born. The Vedic zodiac is divided into 27 nakshatras of 13°20′ each, from Ashwini to Revati, and each one is divided again into four padas (quarters) of 3°20′. The nakshatra is a finer address for your Moon than the sign: a sign holds two and a quarter nakshatras.

Each nakshatra has a ruling planet, which starts your Vimshottari dasha; a presiding deity and an emblem from the tradition; and each pada has a syllable that families use to choose the first sound of a baby's name.

The method

How we find your nakshatra and pada

• The instant. Your local birth time is converted to universal time with your birthplace's time zone on that date. The time zone and any daylight saving are found from the birthplace and the date, so enter the time exactly as the local clock showed it.
• The Moon. The Moon's position is computed from a full lunar theory, the same engine as the ProperPandit Kundli.
• Sidereal longitude. The Lahiri ayanamsa of your birth date is subtracted, giving the Moon's place against the fixed stars.
• Nakshatra and pada. That longitude is divided by 13°20′ for the nakshatra and by 3°20′ for the pada. Nothing is rounded to a nearby boundary.

The ruling planets follow the Vimshottari order (Ketu, Venus, Sun, Moon, Mars, Rahu, Jupiter, Saturn, Mercury, repeated three times). The deity and emblem are the ones most commonly printed in panchangs, where texts differ on a few.

Honest when unsure

When the time is unknown

The Moon spends about a day in each nakshatra and about six hours in each pada, so a date alone often leaves two possibilities. If you leave the time blank, the calculator reads the whole day in local time and lists every nakshatra and pada the Moon passed through, each with the hours it held. Nothing is chosen for you.

If your family remembers roughly when you were born, pick the stretch of the day that fits. For a naming ceremony, ask your pandit to confirm from the exact time.

Naamkaran

The syllable of your pada

By tradition, a name begins with the syllable of the Moon's pada at birth: Ashwini's four padas give chu, che, cho and la, and so on through all 108 padas. Where two traditions disagree on a syllable, both are shown. The table is traditional and widely used, but it has no single classical citation, so treat it as a custom rather than a rule.

Questions

Frequently asked questions

• What is the difference between nakshatra and rashi?

  Both describe where the Moon was at birth. The rashi is one of 12 signs of 30 degrees; the nakshatra is one of 27 divisions of 13°20′. The nakshatra is the finer of the two, and the first mahadasha of your life is ruled by its lord.

• What is a pada?

  Each nakshatra has four quarters called padas, of 3°20′ each, making 108 padas in the zodiac. The pada sets the traditional naming syllable and the Navamsa sign of the Moon.

• Can I find my nakshatra without a birth time?

  Often, but not always. The Moon changes nakshatra about once a day, so the calculator shows every nakshatra and pada of your birth date with the hours each one held, and you choose the one that fits.

• Is birth star the same as janma nakshatra?

  Yes. Birth star, janma nakshatra and janma tara all mean the nakshatra of the Moon at birth. It is not the Sun's nakshatra.

• Why does another website give a different pada?

  Usually because of a different ayanamsa, an unconverted time zone, or a daylight-saving hour. This calculator uses Lahiri and finds the zone and daylight saving from the birthplace, the same as the ProperPandit Kundli.

• Is it free?

  Yes. The calculator is free and nothing you enter is stored.