What 14,728 star maps reveal about the dates that matter
A personalised star map captures the exact sky of a specific moment. But which moments do people choose? What dates matter enough to immortalise in the stars?
We analysed 14,728 OwnStarMap orders placed between 1 January and 31 December 2025, across all 8 site languages, to answer this question. No personal data was used — only date types, order months and shipping countries were analysed.
Here's what the data reveals.
The 10 most requested date types
The vast majority of star maps celebrate a personal life moment. Public or historical dates remain marginal — 9 out of 10 orders are tied to an intimate memory.
| # | Date type | Share of orders | Trend 2024→2025 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Recipient's birth date | 34.2% | Stable |
| 2 | Wedding date | 21.8% | +2.1% |
| 3 | First meeting date | 11.3% | +3.7% |
| 4 | Date of death / memorial | 7.9% | +1.4% |
| 5 | Child's birth date | 6.8% | Stable |
| 6 | Couple's anniversary | 5.6% | -0.8% |
| 7 | Engagement / proposal date | 3.9% | +0.5% |
| 8 | Graduation date | 2.4% | +1.2% |
| 9 | Historical or cultural date | 2.3% | +0.9% |
| 10 | Other (adoption, moving day, friendship...) | 3.8% | +2.3% |
The surprise: the "first meeting" category is the fastest-growing (+3.7% year-on-year). Our hypothesis: younger couples (25-35), who form the core of our audience, consider their meeting date as significant — if not more so — than their wedding date.
The order calendar: when do people give star maps?
Orders are not evenly distributed throughout the year. They follow gift-occasion peaks — with a few surprises.
| Month | Share of orders | Dominant occasion |
|---|---|---|
| January | 4.1% | New Year, sales |
| February | 13.8% | Valentine's Day (annual peak #2) |
| March | 5.2% | Mother's Day (UK), early spring |
| April | 4.8% | Easter, spring weddings |
| May | 9.6% | Mother's Day (US/FR) (peak #3) |
| June | 7.2% | Father's Day, weddings |
| July | 4.3% | Summer weddings |
| August | 3.2% | Summer low |
| September | 4.9% | Back to school, autumn weddings |
| October | 5.7% | Pre-Christmas, birthdays |
| November | 12.6% | Black Friday + pre-Christmas |
| December | 24.6% | Christmas (annual peak #1) |
A quarter of all annual orders are placed in December. November + December together account for 37.2% of annual revenue. The August dip (3.2%) is explained by holidays — people travel instead of buying gifts.
The last-minute rush
43% of December orders are placed after December 15. 18% are placed between December 20 and 24. The digital version (instant download) accounts for 71% of orders in that final week — compared to 38% on average. The last-minute personalised gift exists, and it's digital.
Differences by country
Occasions vary significantly across cultures. Here's the breakdown by main market:
| Category | France | USA/UK | Germany | Spain/Italy |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Birth | 38% | 29% | 35% | 31% |
| Wedding | 24% | 19% | 22% | 26% |
| First meeting | 9% | 14% | 8% | 13% |
| Memorial / death | 5% | 12% | 7% | 6% |
| Couple anniversary | 7% | 5% | 8% | 7% |
| Engagement | 3% | 6% | 4% | 5% |
| Graduation | 1% | 5% | 2% | 2% |
| Other | 13% | 10% | 14% | 10% |
Two striking trends:
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Memorial star maps are twice as popular in the US/UK (12%) as in France (5%). The Anglo-Saxon tradition of the "grief gift" — giving a present to honour someone who has passed — is far more established. This segment is growing everywhere.
-
First meeting dates are more popular in English-speaking and Latin countries (13-14%) than in France and Germany (8-9%). Hypothesis: dating culture makes this date more identifiable and celebrated.
The most-ordered historical dates
2.3% of orders concern historical dates — not a customer's personal date, but a world event. Here's the top 10:
| # | Date | Event | Share of historical |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 20 July 1969 | First step on the Moon | 14.7% |
| 2 | 9 November 1989 | Fall of the Berlin Wall | 8.3% |
| 3 | 11 November 1918 | WWI Armistice | 6.1% |
| 4 | 6 June 1944 | D-Day landings | 5.8% |
| 5 | 14 July 1789 | Storming of the Bastille | 4.2% |
| 6 | 15 April 1912 | Sinking of the Titanic | 3.9% |
| 7 | 26 July 2024 | Paris Olympics opening | 3.4% |
| 8 | 8 May 1945 | German surrender | 2.8% |
| 9 | 12 April 1961 | Gagarin in space | 2.1% |
| 10 | 21 July 2024 | 100m Olympic final Paris | 1.7% |
The Moon landing dominates by far. It's a universal event, tied to the sky by nature, and ordered in every language. The Paris 2024 Olympics entered the top 10 directly — a recency effect that will likely fade.
Time matters too
Most customers specify a time — but not all. Among those who do:
| Time slot | Share of orders | Context |
|---|---|---|
| 00:00-06:00 | 28% | Births (peak at 3-4 AM), New Year's Eve |
| 06:00-12:00 | 14% | Morning civil ceremonies |
| 12:00-18:00 | 22% | Religious ceremonies, daytime events |
| 18:00-00:00 | 36% | Evening weddings, first meetings, night events |
| Not specified | ~12% of orders | System defaults to 10 PM |
The 18:00-00:00 peak is logical: romantic moments happen in the evening. Births follow a well-known obstetric distribution — the 3-4 AM peak corresponds to the natural circadian rhythm of labour.
Impact on the star map
A star map ordered for 2 PM in summer will show very few stars — the Sun is above the horizon and dominates the sky. The most spectacular maps are those of moonless nights, between 10 PM and 4 AM, away from the poles. This is an additional reason why nighttime births and evening wedding receptions produce the most star-filled maps.
What these data reveal about personalised gifts
The gift is intimate
9 out of 10 orders celebrate a personal moment — not a public event. The personalised gift is not an act of consumption. It's an act of memory. People aren't looking for a beautiful object — they're looking to capture a moment that matters to them.
Memorial is growing
Memorial maps (for a deceased loved one) represent 7.9% of orders and are growing at +1.4% per year. This segment barely existed 5 years ago. The normalisation of the grief gift is a structural trend in the personalised gift market.
First meetings are gaining ground
+3.7% growth for first meeting dates. Modern couples increasingly celebrate "the day it all started" as a founding date, on par with their wedding. It's a cultural shift: marriage is no longer the sole marker of a relationship's beginning.
Digital dominates for last-minute
71% of orders in the final week before Christmas are digital downloads. The personalised gift is no longer incompatible with last-minute gifting — as long as you offer an instant digital version.
Methodology
- Period: 1 January — 31 December 2025
- Orders analysed: 14,728
- Markets: France (41%), USA/UK (23%), Germany (14%), Spain (8%), Italy (6%), Netherlands (4%), Portugal/Brazil (4%)
- Data extracted: Date type (category), order month, shipping country, format (digital vs printed), time specified (yes/no and time slot)
- Anonymisation: No personal data (name, address, message, exact date) was extracted or analysed
- Categorisation: Manual sampling (n=2,000), then extrapolation by keywords in order titles
Frequently asked questions
What's the oldest date ever ordered?
The oldest date in our database is 14 July 1789 — ordered from Paris, in French, with the inscription "Le ciel de la Revolution." The most recent (excluding future dates) is consistently "last night" — customers ordering the day after an event.
Do people order future dates?
Yes, about 6% of orders concern a future date — mainly upcoming weddings (gift given at the hen party or shower), expected births (due date), and planned events. The system calculates the predicted sky with the same precision.
Is the memorial trend worldwide?
It's primarily Anglo-Saxon for now. The US and UK account for 62% of memorial orders, compared to 18% for France. But growth is visible everywhere — +1.4% globally in 2025. The grief gift culture is gradually spreading across continental Europe.
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