Birthdays · August

August 17 birthdayZodiac sign, famous birthdays, personality and your 2027 numbers

The short answer

August 17 is a Leo birthday in the third decan of Leo with birthday number 8 and a Personal Year 9 in 2027; Robert De Niro (1943), Herta Müller (1953) and Mae West (1893) were born on August 17 too.

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August 17 zodiac sign: Leo

Sun sign: Leo
Sun at noon UTC: 23.7° to 25.1° Leo
Decan: Third of Leo, 20° to 30°
Element and mode: Fire, fixed
Ruling planet: The Sun

In every one of the 91 years from 1940 to 2030 the Sun stood in Leo for the whole of August 17, in every time zone on Earth, between 23.7° and 25.1° of the sign at noon UTC, so an August 17 birthday is a Leo birthday whatever the year or the hour.

At noon UTC on August 17 the Sun is in the third decan of Leo, 20° to 30°, in every one of those years, a face that belongs to Mars in the Chaldean order and is read through Aries, ruled by Mars, by triplicity, so the two systems agree; in most years the decan runs from August 13 to August 22, and August 17 is its fifth day.

In most years August 17 is the 26th day of the Sun’s season in Leo, which runs from July 23 to August 22 counted at noon UTC, with five days of it still to come. August 17 is the 229th day of a common year and the 230th of a leap year, with 136 days of the year still to come after it.

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Famous August 17 birthdays

The earliest born of the twelve is John III Sobieski, in 1629, and the most recent Thierry Henry, in 1977; three of them were born after 1949.

Born since 1950

Herta Müller (born 1953), German-Romanian novelist, poet and essayist
Thierry Henry (born 1977), French association football player and manager
Nelson Piquet (born 1952), Brazilian racing driver

Born from 1900 to 1949

Robert De Niro (born 1943), American actor
V. S. Naipaul (1932–2018), Trinidadian-British writer
Mikhail Botvinnik (1911–1995), Soviet chess player
Larry Ellison (born 1944), American internet entrepreneur and businessman
Margaret Hamilton (1936–2026), American mathematician

Born in the 1800s

Mae West (1893–1980), American actress, singer, screenwriter, and writer
Charles I of Austria (1887–1922), Last monarch of Austria-Hungary
Marcus Garvey (1887–1940), Jamaica-born British political activist, Pan-Africanist

Born before 1800

John III Sobieski (1629–1696), King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania

Birthdays from Wikidata, checked against Wikipedia’s “On this day” births: the twelve best known of the 65 people the Almanac’s table keeps for August 17, by how many Wikipedia editions cover them, with dates before the calendar reform as the sources give them.

August 17 birthday personality

Both systems give the last face of Leo to Mars, and by triplicity it borrows the ram’s fire, so this is read as Leo with its sword drawn, brave, protective and quick to take up a cause. The lesson the tradition attaches is the difference between courage and the need to be seen being brave.

The 17th carries the 1 of a beginning and the 7 of reflection and adds them into 8, so numerology reads it as thought that turns into authority. It is a birthday linked with good judgement and long effort. Read with fire, the 8 is ambition with visible courage: the risk taken in public, the venture backed with conviction.

A question to carry from August 17: what responsibility is your warmth ready to take on, and what is it ready to hand over?

The Sun in Leo and the number 8 are only part of the story: your Moon, your rising sign and the rest of your chart have as much to say, and the tradition offers all this as a mirror, never a verdict.

Birthday number 8

Born on the 17th, 1 + 7 = 8, so your birthday number is 8: an 8 vibration supports power, ambition, money, mastery, and authority, with mastery, stewardship, and executive force as its gift and pressure, material fixation, or control issues as its strain.

Your 2027 numbers

Pythagoras with a small lyre, pointing to a triangle of ten pebbles in his palm, an engraving — Pythagoras, the philosopher of number

For a birthday on August 17 the house method reduces the birth month and the day on their own and adds the Universal Year of 2027, 11 (2 + 0 + 2 + 7 = 11, a master number kept whole), as it stands: August, the 8th month, gives 8, the 17th reduces to 8, and 8 + 8 + 11 = 27, which reduces to 9, so 2027 is your Personal Year 9.

Numerology reads a Personal Year 9 as a year of endings, generosity and letting go, closing one nine-year round. Under the Universal Year 11, the reading sees the release as preparing for a new and more inspired chapter.

Personal Months of 2027, a Personal Year 9: Jan 1 Feb 11 Mar 3 Apr 4 May 5 Jun 6 Jul 7 Aug 8 Sep 9 Oct 1 Nov 2 Dec 3

In 2027 August 17 falls on a Tuesday, the day the old reckoning gives to Mars, and is a Personal Day 7 (8 + 17 = 25, then 7) in a Personal Month 8 (9 + 8 = 17, then 8), while February is a master month 11; the Personal Year itself turns on 1 January, not on the birthday.

August birthstone and birth flower

Birthstones: Peridot, spinel and sardonyx
Birth flowers: Gladiolus, and poppy as the second flower

August’s peridot, spinel and sardonyx come from the modern list (the Jewelers of America list of 1912, as since revised), and its gladiolus and poppy from The Old Farmer’s Almanac.

More birthdays

Common questions

What zodiac sign is August 17?

Leo: from 1940 to 2030 the Sun stayed in Leo for the whole of August 17 in every year and every time zone, 23.7° to 25.1° into the sign at noon UTC, so no birth year or birth time changes it.

Is August 17 a cusp birthday?

No: the Sun stays in Leo all day on August 17 in every year from 1940 to 2030, wherever on Earth the birth takes place, and the nearest cusp birthday is August 22, five days later.

Who was born on August 17?

Among the best known people born on August 17 are Robert De Niro (born 1943), Herta Müller (born 1953) and Mae West (1893–1980), with V. S. Naipaul, Thierry Henry and John III Sobieski and six more named on this page.

What is the birthday number for August 17?

8. Born on the 17th, 1 + 7 = 8, so your birthday number is 8: an 8 vibration supports power, ambition, money, mastery, and authority, with mastery, stewardship, and executive force as its gift and pressure, material fixation, or control issues as its strain.

What is the 2027 Personal Year for an August 17 birthday?

9. For a birthday on August 17 the house method reduces the birth month and the day on their own and adds the Universal Year of 2027, 11 (2 + 0 + 2 + 7 = 11, a master number kept whole), as it stands: August, the 8th month, gives 8, the 17th reduces to 8, and 8 + 8 + 11 = 27, which reduces to 9, so 2027 is your Personal Year 9.