Yildizname Calculation: How to Find Your Abjad Star Chart Sign with Your Mother's Name

What Is a Yildizname, in Brief?

In the Ottoman and wider Islamic tradition, the yildizname (literally "star book") is a method that turns a person's name and their mother's name into a number using Abjad values, then links that number to one of the twelve zodiac signs. It has nothing to do with your birth date: the result comes entirely from letters. We will skip the history and the comparison with Western astrology here and focus on one goal: helping you do the calculation yourself, correctly.

Why the Mother's Name?

People are often surprised that the mother's name is used rather than the father's. The reason most often given in the tradition is that a person's descent from their mother is never in doubt; it is established at birth. The mother's name is therefore treated as a fixed element that completes one's own name. The rule is simple: your name + your mother's name.

Step-by-Step Yildizname Calculation

1. Write both names in Arabic letters. You work with the original Arabic spelling, not the Latin one. "Ahmet" or "Ahmed", for instance, is written أحمد.
2. Look up the Abjad value of each letter. The standard (kabir) table is used: ا 1, ب 2, ج 3, د 4, ه 5, و 6, ز 7, ح 8, ط 9, ي 10, ك 20, ل 30, م 40, ن 50, س 60, ع 70, ف 80, ص 90, ق 100, ر 200, ش 300, ت 400, ث 500, خ 600, ذ 700, ض 800, ظ 900, غ 1000.
3. Add up the letters of your own name.
4. Add up the letters of your mother's name.
5. Combine the two totals.
6. Divide by 12 and keep the remainder. The quotient does not matter; only the remainder points to the sign. A remainder of 0 counts as 12.

Short vowel marks and the shadda are ignored; only written letters count. The final ta marbuta (ة) is valued at 5.

Worked Example: Ahmed, Son of Fatima

1. The person's name: Ahmed (أحمد)

• أ (alif) = 1
• ح (ha) = 8
• م (mim) = 40
• د (dal) = 4

Total: 1 + 8 + 40 + 4 = 53

2. The mother's name: Fatima (فاطمة)

• ف (fa) = 80
• ا (alif) = 1
• ط (ta) = 9
• م (mim) = 40
• ة (ta marbuta) = 5

Total: 80 + 1 + 9 + 40 + 5 = 135

3. Combine and divide

53 + 135 = 188. Dividing 188 by 12 gives 15 with a remainder of 8 (12 × 15 = 180; 188 − 180 = 8).

Remainder 8 corresponds to Scorpio. Scorpio belongs to the water triplicity and is ruled by Mars, so in this example the star chart sign is Scorpio, the element Water and the planet Mars.

The 12 Remainders: Sign, Element and Planet

This table shows which sign each remainder points to, together with the sign's element and the ruling planet used in our reports.

Where does the element come from?

The element is not found by a separate division; it is read straight from the sign. As the Turkish Diyanet Encyclopedia of Islam (TDV) explains in its "Yıldızname" entry, the signs are grouped into four triangles, each tied to one element:

• Fire: Aries, Leo, Sagittarius
• Earth: Taurus, Virgo, Capricorn
• Air: Gemini, Libra, Aquarius
• Water: Cancer, Scorpio, Pisces

The planets follow a neat pattern too: of the seven classical bodies, the Sun and the Moon rule one sign each, while the other five rule two.

Common Calculation Mistakes

• Counting Latin letters. Giving values to the a, h, m, e, d of "Ahmed" produces a meaningless total. Abjad works only with Arabic letters, and many vowels are not written as separate letters.
• Counting ta marbuta as 400. If the final ة of فاطمة is confused with ت (400), the total changes completely. The traditional convention is 5.
• Counting vowel marks or shadda. They show pronunciation, not value.
• Misreading a remainder of 0. If the total is an exact multiple of 12, the remainder is 0 and the sign is Pisces.
• Using the father's name. The yildizname adds the mother's name, not the father's.
• Confusing quotient and remainder. In our example 15 says nothing about the sign; 8 does.
• Wrong spelling. Find the name's Arabic original first: Mehmet and Muhammad are both written محمد.

What a Simple Calculation Cannot Tell You

The method above gives you a sign, an element and a planet. That trio is only the doorway to a yildizname reading. Thousands of people share the same sign, and two people who both land on Scorpio can have very different names, letter patterns and totals.

Some layers a simple sum leaves out:

• How the elements are distributed across the letters of your name, and which group dominates
• The days and hours associated with your ruling planet
• Periods the tradition considers favourable or calls for caution
• Whether your sign and the number of your name support or strain each other

None of this can be read from the remainder alone; it requires interpreting the whole name, letter by letter, together with the mother's name.

A Short Note

The yildizname is a traditional practice of calculation and interpretation from Ottoman and Islamic culture. The information here is cultural and educational; it makes no definite claims or guarantees about the future. Please do not base important life decisions on such calculations alone.