February Birthdays: Zodiac Signs, Decans and Numerology for Every Day

Zodiac signs and decans in February

February begins in Aquarius' second decan, where Mercury as sub-ruler gives the sign a chatty, networked intelligence. Around February 9 the third decan arrives, and Venus warms Aquarian ideals with charm and a sense of fairness. Then, around February 18 or 19, the Sun enters Pisces, the last sign of the zodiac. The move is from fixed air to mutable water, from concept to feeling, and many people sense that late-February birthdays carry a softer, more porous quality. The final days of the month sit in Pisces' first decan, where Neptune is doubled and imagination runs freely. In leap years, February 29 falls just inside the second decan, where the Moon begins to shape the sign. The month as a whole traces a line from the mind's ideals to the heart's intuitions.

In most years February birthdays from the 1st to the 18th are Aquarius, and from the 19th they are Pisces. The cusp dates, where the sign can differ by year or time zone, are February 17, 18, 19 and 20; each has its own page explaining both possibilities. Decan by decan, the month opens in the second decan of Aquarius, linked with Mercury, from the 9th the third decan of Aquarius, linked with Venus, from the 19th the first decan of Pisces, linked with Neptune and from the 29th the second decan of Pisces, linked with Moon.

February birthdays in numerology and the Chinese zodiac

Numerologically, February is month 2, the number of cooperation, diplomacy and quiet perception. It tends to temper whatever the rest of a birth date contributes with a wish to work alongside others. February is also the trickiest month for the Chinese zodiac. Lunar New Year can fall as late as February 20, so a birthday in the first half of the month may still belong to the previous year's animal, and it is worth checking the exact date for the year in question rather than assuming. From February 21 onwards, the new year has always begun. In Four Pillars astrology the Tiger month opens around February 4 with the solar term called the Beginning of Spring, so most February birthdays carry the Tiger's restless, courageous energy in the month pillar.

Every page for a February date lists the Life Path for several birth years, because the year changes the total even when the day stays the same. Those pages also show how many years since 1924 had already reached Lunar New Year by that date.

Famous February birthdays

Each February page lists the best-known people born on that date, drawn from Wikidata and ranked by how many Wikipedia language editions have an article about them. A sample across the month: Boris Yeltsin (February 1), Rosa Parks (February 4), Charles Dickens (February 7), Bertolt Brecht (February 10), William Shockley (February 13), Octave Mirbeau (February 16), Cristina Fernández de Kirchner (February 19), George Washington (February 22), George Harrison (February 25) and Linus Pauling (February 28). Sharing a birthday with someone well known says nothing about a life's direction, but it is a pleasant way into the date's sign, decan and numbers, which each page then explains in turn. The lists favour people with a precisely recorded birth date in the modern Gregorian calendar, so some much-celebrated figures from earlier centuries are missing.