MarriageAn equals sign between two people marks a marriage.
DescentAn upright line links parents to their child.
SiblingsA level line joins brothers and sisters.
DeceasedA slanted line through a symbol means the person has died.
Ego's relatives 12
EgoThe person the chart starts from. Every other name is counted from Ego.
FatherEgo's father, joined to the mother by an equals sign.
MotherEgo's mother, joined to the father by an equals sign.
BrotherA triangle on the same level line as Ego.
SisterA circle on the same level line as Ego.
Father's brotherAn uncle on the father's side.
Father's sisterAn aunt on the father's side.
Mother's brotherAn uncle on the mother's side.
Mother's sisterAn aunt on the mother's side.
GrandparentsA couple in the top row. These two are the father's parents.
Parallel cousinA child of the father's brother or the mother's sister.
Cross cousinA child of the father's sister or the mother's brother.
How this list was compiled: Every name was checked on 2026-10-03 in at least two of these. (1) University of Manitoba, Kinship and Social Organization: an interactive tutorial, read in Internet Archive copies: Kinship Diagrams, https://web.archive.org/web/20130109021137/http://www.umanitoba.ca/faculties/arts/anthropology/tutor/fundamentals/fund2.html (a circle is a female and a triangle a male, an equal sign a marriage, a vertical line descent or parentage, a horizontal line a sibling bond; relationships are traced from a central person labeled Ego), and Systematic Kinship Terminologies, https://web.archive.org/web/20131113000431/http://www.umanitoba.ca/faculties/arts/anthropology/tutor/kinterms/termsys.html (father's brother, mother's brother, mother's sister; father's brother's children and mother's sister's children are parallel cousins; cross-cousins through the mother's brother). (2) Perspectives: An Open Invitation to Cultural Anthropology, chapter Family and Marriage, an openly licensed textbook read in the LibreTexts copy (kinship diagrams start from a person called Ego by convention; a triangle for males and a circle for females; an equals sign between two individuals indicates a marriage; a vertical line drops from the equals sign to the couple's children; a horizontal line joins a group of siblings; a diagonal line through a symbol indicates that a person is deceased; a chart of three generations with aunts, uncles, cousins and grandparents). (3) Cultural Anthropology (Evans), section 8.1 Kinship Diagrams, an openly licensed textbook read in the LibreTexts copy (a circle represents a female and a triangle a male; a line through the symbol shows that a person is deceased; the starting person is identified as Ego; some anthropologists develop their own symbols, with a key). (4) Wikipedia, Kinship terminology, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kinship_terminology (circles for female relatives and triangles for male ones; the ego is the person the relatives are kin to; the abbreviations F, M, B, Z) and Parallel and cross cousins, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parallel_and_cross_cousins (a parallel cousin is a child of the father's brother or the mother's sister, a cross-cousin the child of the mother's brother or the father's sister). Licence: own work
The drawing: Drawn for this site on 2026-10-03 from plain geometry. Own original chart of a made-up family; nothing is traced or copied. Licence: own work
How it works
This kinship diagram quiz has two parts. First name six symbols: the triangle, the circle, the equals sign, two lines and the mark for a person who has died. Then name Ego and Ego's relatives on a second chart.
Read the full guide
Name the symbols
A box under one symbol is lit. Pick its name from four. A triangle is a male and a circle is a female; an equals sign joins a married couple; an upright line runs down to their children; a level line joins brothers and sisters.
Name Ego's relatives
The second chart shows three generations. Ego is the larger triangle with the heavy outline in the bottom row, and every name is counted from Ego: the father's sister is the circle beside the father's brother.
See the names first
Show me the labels first writes every name in its box. More options has copies to print.
A cousin is parallel when the two linking parents are both brothers or both sisters, and cross when they are a brother and a sister.
Questions and answers
What do the symbols on a kinship diagram mean?
A triangle is a male and a circle is a female. An equals sign marks a marriage, a vertical line marks descent from parents to child, and a horizontal line joins siblings. A diagonal line through a symbol means the person has died.
Who is Ego on a kinship diagram?
The person the diagram starts from. Relationships are traced through Ego, so the other people on the chart are named as Ego's relatives: Ego's father, Ego's mother's brother, and so on.
What is the difference between a parallel cousin and a cross cousin?
A parallel cousin is a child of the father's brother or of the mother's sister. A cross cousin is a child of the father's sister or of the mother's brother.
Do all kinship diagrams use the same symbols?
Most use the triangle, the circle, the equals sign and the two lines. Other signs, such as a square or a mark for a marriage that has ended, appear in some textbooks and not in others.