How to find out what time you were born

Check your birth certificate first

The rules differ across the four nations, and so does the type of certificate you need. A short certificate never helps here: it carries only the basics. You need a full copy of the register entry.

England and Wales

Births in England and Wales are generally registered without a time. The main exception is twins, triplets and other multiple births, where the time is recorded to show the order of birth. The General Register Office's own guide notes that a time of birth on a certificate may indicate the child is a twin or triplet.

If you are a twin, or not sure what your entry says, order a full certificate from the General Register Office. At the time of writing it costs £12.50 (standard) or £38.50 (priority, dispatched the next working day), and a little more if you don't have the GRO index reference.

Scotland

Scotland is the good news. The time of birth is recorded for every birth, not only for twins and multiple births. Ask for a full extract of the birth entry rather than an abbreviated certificate, through ScotlandsPeople or National Records of Scotland. Check the current fee when you order.

Northern Ireland

We couldn't find an official statement on whether Northern Ireland entries include a time. The General Register Office for Northern Ireland can tell you what your entry holds before you pay for a full copy.

Ask for your hospital maternity records

If you were born in hospital, the maternity notes from your birth usually record the delivery in detail. In England, the NHS Records Management Code of Practice says maternity records should be kept for 25 years, because the record belongs to the child as well as the mother. Older records may have been destroyed, but it is worth asking.

1. Find the hospital, or the trust that runs it now. Hospitals merge and rename, so search for the current trust.
2. Contact its health records or data protection team and make a subject access request for your birth records. Your mother can ask for her own maternity notes too.
3. Ask specifically for the delivery or labour record. That is the page most likely to show a time.

Under UK data protection law a subject access request is normally free and should be answered within one month. Rules and retention periods in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland are set separately, so ask the health board directly.

Ask family, and test their memory

Parents, grandparents and older siblings are often the only source. Memories of a birth are vivid but not always precise, and people tend to round. A few questions help you turn a memory into a range you can use:

• Was it light or dark outside? Before or after a meal, a shift change, the school run, a television programme?
• Who was there, and how did they get to the hospital? Did anyone phone relatives afterwards, and when?
• Was the time noted by a midwife, or is it the time someone looked at a clock later?
• Do two people remember it differently? Keep both: the range runs from the earliest to the latest.

Write down the answer as a range, such as “between 2 and 4 in the morning”, not as a single time. A confident wrong time does more harm than an honest wide one.

Baby book, photos and letters

• Baby books often have a line for the time of birth, filled in by a parent in the first days.
• Hospital wristbands and cot cards, if someone kept them, sometimes carry the time.
• Birth announcements in letters, cards or a local newspaper occasionally mention it.
• Your personal child health record (the “red book”) is worth a look, though the layout varies by area and many don't record a time.

How wide is your range?

Whatever you found, check what is at stake. Enter the earliest and latest time you think is possible, and see how many rising signs fit inside it. Nothing is saved.

If nothing works: rectification

When no record exists, astrologers use rectification: they test the possible birth times against the dated events of your life, such as moves, marriages, children and career changes, and keep the time whose chart fits them best. It gives a most likely window with a confidence level, not a certified time, and it is no use for official documents.

Free “AI” birth time tools usually guess from how you describe your personality. They don't test anything you can check. Rectification uses dates and shows its work. Read how our rectification works, or see the sample report.