How to Write Your Date of Birth in Roman Numerals

To write your date of birth in Roman numerals, convert the day, the month and the year separately and keep the order used where you live. Someone born on 14 March 1995 writes III.XIV.MCMXCV in the US (month first) and XIV.III.MCMXCV in the UK (day first). The year is always written in full.

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On this page
  1. Convert each part
  2. Pick the order
  3. Birth years from 1950 to 2015
  4. Separators and layout
  5. Only the year, or only the day and month
  6. Before it becomes permanent
  7. Sources

Convert each part

Take 14 March 1995:

  • Day: 14 = X + IV = XIV
  • Month: March is the 3rd month = III
  • Year: 1995 = M + CM + XC + V = MCMXCV

Here is the year broken down place by place:

PlaceValueSymbols
Thousands1000M
Hundreds900C (subtracted)M
Tens90X (subtracted)C
Units5V
Total1995MCMXCV

Pick the order

The order is the decision that matters most. Unicode's CLDR, the shared database of locale conventions, gives US English a month-first pattern and British English a day-first one (CLDR). The same birthday changes depending on who reads it:

Locale (CLDR)Order11 November 2026
American Englishmonth – day – yearIII.XIV.MCMXCV
British Englishday – month – yearXIV.III.MCMXCV
Australian Englishday – month – yearXIV.III.MCMXCV
Canadian Englishyear – month – dayMCMXCV.III.XIV

If the date is for someone else, use the order they would use. If they live in another country, ask.

Birth years from 1950 to 2015

The year is the longest part, so it helps to see some next to each other:

YearRomanYearRoman
1950MCML1985MCMLXXXV
1960MCMLX1990MCMXC
1970MCMLXX1999MCMXCIX
1975MCMLXXV2000MM
1980MCMLXXX2010MMX
1984MCMLXXXIV2015MMXV

Separators and layout

Dots are the usual separator. For a tattoo or a piece of jewelry, a middle dot or a line break per part can look cleaner:

  • dots: XIV.III.MCMXCV
  • middle dots: XIV·III·MCMXCV
  • hyphens: XIV-III-MCMXCV

Keep the same separator between all three parts.

Only the year, or only the day and month

You don't have to use the whole date. Two shorter forms are common:

  • The year alone: someone born in 1995 can use MCMXCV. It's the longest part, so it carries the meaning on its own. The year converter handles any year.
  • Day and month without the year: 14 March becomes XIV.III in day-month order or III.XIV in US order. Without the year, the order is even harder to guess, so this form works best when the person reading it already knows the date.

Whatever you leave out, keep the parts you use in the same order as the full date would be.

Before it becomes permanent

A wrong birth date on skin or metal is hard to fix. Before you approve a design:

  1. Check each part with the validator. The usual errors are IIII for 4, VIIII for 9 and IL for 49 in the year (1949 is MCMXLIX).
  2. Confirm the order with the person whose birthday it is.
  3. Write the year in full. "XCV" for '95 reads as the number 95.
  4. Read it back out loud from Roman numerals to digits.
WrittenCorrectWhat's wrong
MCMLXXXXVMeant: 1,995MCMXCVA symbol can repeat at most three times in a row.
MCMILMeant: 1,949MCMXLIXOnly I, X and C subtract, and only from the next two symbols (IV, IX, XL, XC, CD, CM).
MIMMeant: 1,999MCMXCIXOnly I, X and C subtract, and only from the next two symbols (IV, IX, XL, XC, CD, CM).

The guide to dates in Roman numerals has the full checklist and the order used in more countries.

Convert your date of birthEnter the date, pick the order and the separator, and copy the result.

Sources

  1. Date/Time Patterns. Unicode CLDR