Zodiac Signs in English: Names, Meanings & Plurals
The zodiac signs in English are not English. Every one of the twelve is Latin, sitting unchanged in a language that otherwise translated most of what it borrowed. English says Sagittarius where German says Schütze, Dutch says Boogschutter and Swedish says Skytten — all of them native words meaning “shooter” or “archer”.
Which makes English the odd one out in its own family, and it explains the two things people actually search for: how to pronounce these words, and what to call the people born under them.
All 12 Zodiac Signs in English
| Sign | Pronunciation | Latin meaning | Native English name | Dates |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Aries | AIR-eez | ram | the Ram | 21 March – 19 April |
| Taurus | TOR-us | bull | the Bull | 20 April – 20 May |
| Gemini | JEM-ih-nye | twins | the Twins | 21 May – 20 June |
| Cancer | KAN-sur | crab | the Crab | 21 June – 22 July |
| Leo | LEE-oh | lion | the Lion | 23 July – 22 August |
| Virgo | VUR-goh | maiden, virgin | the Maiden | 23 August – 22 September |
| Libra | LEE-bruh | scales, a pound weight | the Scales | 23 September – 22 October |
| Scorpio | SKOR-pee-oh | scorpion | the Scorpion | 23 October – 21 November |
| Sagittarius | saj-ih-TAIR-ee-us | archer | the Archer | 22 November – 21 December |
| Capricorn | KAP-rih-korn | goat-horn | the Sea-Goat | 22 December – 19 January |
| Aquarius | uh-KWAIR-ee-us | water-carrier | the Water-Bearer | 20 January – 18 February |
| Pisces | PYE-seez | fishes | the Fish | 19 February – 20 March |
Why English Kept the Latin When Its Relatives Did Not
English is a Germanic language, and every other Germanic language in this series translated the zodiac into native vocabulary. German built Wassermann and Steinbock. Dutch built Weegschaal and Boogschutter. The Scandinavian languages did the same.
English did not, for the same reason English says “commence” as well as “begin”: after 1066 the language absorbed Latin and French vocabulary on a scale that no other Germanic language matched, and technical fields ended up almost entirely Latinate. Astrology was a technical field. Chaucer was writing about the signs in English by the 1390s, and the Latin names were already the ones in use.
The native names survived alongside them without ever taking over — which is why an English almanac can print “Aries, the Ram” and both halves feel correct.
The Five Zodiac Signs in English People Mispronounce
Seven of the twelve give nobody any trouble. These five do.
How to pronounce Sagittarius
Five syllables: saj-ih-TAIR-ee-us. The stress lands on the third. Two things go wrong. People compress the middle and produce four syllables, and people say “sadj-ih-TAR-ee-us” with a flat a instead of the “air” sound. The double t in the spelling is a single sound. See the Sagittarius profile.
How to pronounce Aquarius
uh-KWAIR-ee-us. The opening a is a weak “uh”, not “ack”, and the qu is “kw”. “Ack-WAR-ee-us” is the usual error. See the Aquarius profile.
How to pronounce Gemini
JEM-ih-nye, rhyming the last syllable with “eye”. JEM-ih-nee is also heard and is not wrong, but the “-nye” ending is the standard in astrological use and in the space programme it gave its name to. The Gemini profile has more.
How to pronounce Pisces
PYE-seez. The i is long and the c is soft. Not “PISS-eez”, not “PEE-cheez” — the second of which comes from readers who know the Italian Pesci. See the Pisces profile.
How to pronounce Libra
LEE-bruh in modern English on both sides of the Atlantic. Worth knowing that older British English said LYE-bruh, and you will still hear it from some speakers and in older recordings. Both are defensible; “LEE-bruh” is now standard. The Libra profile covers the sign.
What Do You Call a Person Born Under Each Sign?
English has a word for each, and unlike Portuguese or Spanish it uses them unevenly — some are common, some sound bookish, and for four signs most people simply use the sign name itself.
| Sign | A person | In practice |
|---|---|---|
| Aries | Arian | most people say “an Aries” |
| Taurus | Taurean | common |
| Gemini | Geminian | rare; “a Gemini” is normal |
| Cancer | Cancerian | very common, and preferred |
| Leo | Leo | no adjective in use |
| Virgo | Virgoan | rare; “a Virgo” is normal |
| Libra | Libran | common |
| Scorpio | Scorpio | “Scorpian” exists but is unusual |
| Sagittarius | Sagittarian | very common |
| Capricorn | Capricornian | rare; “a Capricorn” is normal |
| Aquarius | Aquarian | very common |
| Pisces | Piscean | very common, and preferred |
There is a pattern in that last column, and it is a useful one. The adjective wins wherever the Latin name is awkward as a countable noun. Nobody says “two Aquariuses” or “three Pisces” if they can help it, so Aquarians and Pisceans took over. Where the Latin pluralises cleanly — Leos, Virgos, Scorpios — the adjective never caught on.
Plurals: Two Scorpios or Two Scorpio?
This is the question the Latin creates, because four of the twelve names are already Latin plurals or look like them.
- Clean plurals: Leos, Virgos, Scorpios, Libras, Cancers, Capricorns, Geminis.
- Already plural in Latin: Gemini (twins) and Pisces (fishes). English treats both as singular anyway — “she’s a Gemini” — which is technically a mismatch that nobody minds.
- Awkward: Aries, Taurus, Sagittarius, Aquarius. Aries is unchanged in the plural; the others take -es if you insist, but Taureans, Sagittarians and Aquarians are what people actually write.
The Older English Names, Still in Use
The native names never disappeared. They survive in almanacs, in astronomy writing, and any time someone wants the image rather than the label: the Ram, the Bull, the Twins, the Crab, the Lion, the Maiden, the Scales, the Scorpion, the Archer, the Sea-Goat, the Water-Bearer, the Fish.
Two are worth a note. Capricorn’s native name is the Sea-Goat, not the Goat — the original Babylonian figure was a goat with a fish’s tail, and English is one of the few languages that preserved the hybrid. German, Dutch and the Scandinavian languages all replaced it with a plain mountain ibex. And Sagittarius is sometimes the Centaur rather than the Archer, since the constellation was drawn as a centaur drawing a bow.
English Astrology Vocabulary
| Term | What it means |
|---|---|
| star sign / sun sign | the sign the Sun was in at your birth — the one in the table above |
| moon sign | the sign the Moon was in at your birth |
| rising sign / ascendant | the sign on the eastern horizon at your birth |
| birth chart / natal chart | the full map of the sky at your moment of birth |
| zodiac | from Greek zóidiakos, “of little animals” |
| cusp | the boundary between two signs |
| element | fire, earth, air or water — each sign belongs to one |
| modality | cardinal, fixed or mutable |
One point of usage: “star sign” is standard British English and “sun sign” is the more precise term, since it specifies which body’s position you mean. American English tends to say “zodiac sign” where British English says “star sign”.
Frequently Asked Questions
What are the 12 zodiac signs in English?
Aries, Taurus, Gemini, Cancer, Leo, Virgo, Libra, Scorpio, Sagittarius, Capricorn, Aquarius and Pisces.
Why are the zodiac signs in English Latin words?
Because English absorbed its technical and scholarly vocabulary from Latin and French after 1066, and astrology was a technical field. The other Germanic languages translated the names into native words instead.
How do you pronounce Sagittarius?
saj-ih-TAIR-ee-us — five syllables, stress on the third.
What is a person born under Pisces called?
A Piscean. Cancer gives Cancerian, Aquarius gives Aquarian, Sagittarius gives Sagittarian. For Leo, Virgo and Scorpio, English just uses the sign name.
What is the plural of Scorpio?
Scorpios. For the awkward ones — Taurus, Sagittarius, Aquarius — most writers use Taureans, Sagittarians and Aquarians instead.
Is Capricorn a goat or a sea-goat?
A sea-goat in English, a goat with a fish’s tail, following the original Babylonian figure. Most European languages replaced it with a plain ibex.
Zodiac Signs in English Compared With Ten Other Languages
English is the outlier in its own family, and the contrast is the quickest way to see it. The zodiac signs in German and the Dutch list show what English would look like had it translated instead of borrowed; Swedish, Danish and Norwegian did the same again. The Italian, Spanish and Portuguese lists inherited the Latin directly rather than borrowing it. And Finnish owes it nothing at all.
All ten languages: zodiac signs in different languages.
