生年月日
Meaning in Englishbirth date
Animated kanji stroke order
Word context
What it means
生年月日 means the date of birth: the year, month, and day on which a person was born; it is used in official records, forms, and identity checks to determine age and eligibility.
Main meanings
- Primary meaning is the exact birth date used for identification and administrative purposes.
- When speaking casually about birthdays, people usually use 誕生日 rather than 生年月日.
- In data entry and records, 生年月日 is a standard field label for age verification and legal documentation.
How to use it
Used in formal contexts such as government forms, medical records, school enrollment, and legal documents; in casual speech, 誕生日 is used for birthday celebrations, while 生年月日 appears on official records and applications.
Variants and close terms
- 誕生日 tanjoubi — birthday (casual)
- 生年月日 seinengappi — formal birth date
Composition
- 生: birth, life
- 年: year
- 月: month
- 日: day
- Overall: four-kanji compound meaning the birth date, the year-month-day of a person’s birth
Etymology
etimologia sei + nen + gappi reflects the standard on'yomi readings of 生 and 年, with 日 often read as ひ/び in compounds; in this word the reading combines into seinengappi, a conventional form in modern Japanese.
Origin
Meiji-era civil registration and the modernization of administrative systems introduced standardized birth date recording as a formal data element in official documents; earlier practices varied by locale and era.
Word class
Noun (名詞)