What Does BBY Mean in Star Wars? BBY & ABY Dating System Explained

Quick answer

BBY (Before the Battle of Yavin) and ABY (After the Battle of Yavin) are the dating system used across all Star Wars canon and Legends material. Year zero is the destruction of the first Death Star in A New Hope (1977). A date like 32 BBY means 32 years before that event; 9 ABY means 9 years after it.

What BBY Stands For

BBY = Before the Battle of Yavin.

It’s the Star Wars galactic calendar’s “BC.” Every year before the Battle of Yavin — the climax of A New Hope where Luke Skywalker destroys the first Death Star — is measured backwards from that single event.

32 BBY = 32 years before the Battle of Yavin → Episode I: The Phantom Menace
22 BBY = 22 years before → Attack of the Clones
19 BBY = 19 years before → Revenge of the Sith
0 BBY = the months immediately before the Battle of Yavin → Rogue One

If a Star Wars novel or wiki entry says “the Mandalorian Wars of 3960 BBY,” that’s 3,960 years before A New Hope — deep Old Republic territory.

What ABY Stands For

ABY = After the Battle of Yavin.

The flip side. Everything that happens after the Death Star explodes gets an ABY year.

0 ABY = the days right after Yavin (the rest of A New Hope‘s ending)
3 ABY = The Empire Strikes Back
4 ABY = Return of the Jedi
9 ABY = The Mandalorian, Book of Boba Fett, Ahsoka, Skeleton Crew
34 ABY = The Force Awakens
35 ABY = The Rise of Skywalker

So The Mandalorian is set five years after the Empire fell (4 ABY → 9 ABY), and the sequel trilogy begins thirty years after that.

The Battle of Yavin: Why It’s Year Zero

The Battle of Yavin is the final act of the original 1977 Star Wars. The Rebel Alliance launches a desperate attack on the Empire’s Death Star, orbiting the gas giant Yavin Prime. Luke Skywalker fires the proton torpedoes that destroy the station.

It’s chosen as year zero for three reasons:

Historical weight. Destroying the Death Star is the moment galactic history pivots. The Empire goes from invincible to vulnerable in a single afternoon.
Out-of-universe anchor. It centers the timeline on the 1977 film — the foundational text of the saga.
Fan-friendly counting. Most major Star Wars stories happen within roughly 35 years of Yavin, so years stay readable (9 ABY, not 9007 ASC).

The system was first formalized in Star Wars: The Essential Chronology (Daniel Wallace, Del Rey, 2000) and was retained when Disney/Lucasfilm rebuilt the canon in 2014.

BBY / ABY Timeline Cheat Sheet

The fastest way to map a Star Wars story to a real year:

Story	In-Universe Date	Era
The Acolyte	132 BBY	High Republic
The Phantom Menace	32 BBY	Fall of the Republic
Attack of the Clones	22 BBY	Clone Wars begins
The Clone Wars (series)	22–19 BBY	Clone Wars
Revenge of the Sith	19 BBY	Order 66 / Empire rises
The Bad Batch	19–18 BBY	Empire’s first months
Obi-Wan Kenobi	9 BBY	Reign of the Empire
Solo	10 BBY	Reign of the Empire
Andor	5–1 BBY	Rise of the Rebellion
Rebels	5–1 BBY	Rise of the Rebellion
Rogue One	0 BBY	Days before A New Hope
A New Hope	0 BBY → 0 ABY	The Battle of Yavin
The Empire Strikes Back	3 ABY	Galactic Civil War
Return of the Jedi	4 ABY	Fall of the Empire
The Mandalorian S1–3	9 ABY	New Republic frontier
The Force Awakens	34 ABY	First Order rises
The Last Jedi	34 ABY	First Order war
The Rise of Skywalker	35 ABY	Final Order falls

For a full breakdown by viewing order, see our Star Wars watch order guide.

BBY/ABY by Era (and the Names That Belong There)

Each BBY/ABY range maps to a distinct naming convention. If you’re writing a Star Wars character, the era you set them in changes what their name should sound like.

Old Republic Era (5000 – 1000 BBY)

Ancient titles, Sith Lords with formal naming structures (Darth + name), Jedi with longer, more ceremonial names. Names like Revan, Malak, Bastila, Satele, Marka Ragnos.

Generate names in this era with our Sith Name Generator — perfect for Darth-titled Sith Lords from any pre-Republic era — or the KOTOR-style name guide.

High Republic Era (~300 – 100 BBY)

The “golden age” of the Jedi. Lighter, more hopeful naming — Avar Kriss, Bell Zettifar, Vernestra Rwoh, Reath Silas. See our High Republic Names Guide for the full naming framework.

Fall of the Republic / Clone Wars Era (32 – 19 BBY)

Prequel-era names: Anakin, Padmé, Ahsoka, plus clone trooper designations like CT-7567 (Rex) and CC-2224 (Cody).

Use the Clone Trooper Name Generator for CT numbers and battlefield nicknames, or the Jedi Padawan Name Generator for apprentice names from this period.

Reign of the Empire Era (19 BBY – 4 ABY)

Imperial officers (Tarkin, Krennic, Thrawn, Hux’s grandfather Brendol), Stormtrooper IDs (FN-2187, TK-421), and rebel pilots flying X-wings.

Generate Empire-era names with:

For deeper lore, see our Imperial Names guide and Clone Trooper names guide.

New Republic Era (4 – 28 ABY)

The Mando era. Frontier names, bounty hunters, post-war rebuilding. Din Djarin, Cara Dune, Greef Karga, Bo-Katan.

Generate names from this period with the Mandalorian Name Generator and Bounty Hunter Name Generator. For naming conventions, see our Mandalorian Names & Clans Guide.

First Order Era (28 – 35 ABY)

Sequel trilogy. Resurgent dark side (Kylo Ren, Snoke, Hux), Resistance pilots (Poe Dameron, Rose Tico), and Rey’s blank-slate hero arc.

BBY/ABY in The Mandalorian, Andor, and Rebels

Three of the most-watched Disney+ shows, mapped to the timeline:

The Mandalorian — 9 ABY

Set five years after Return of the Jedi (4 ABY) and twenty-five years before The Force Awakens (34 ABY). The New Republic is rebuilding, the Empire has scattered into warlord remnants, and Mandalore is shattered.

Why 9 ABY? Showrunner Jon Favreau placed it here specifically because it’s a “frontier” period — no big galactic war, just the messy aftermath of one.

Andor — 5 BBY to 1 BBY

Andor Season 1 begins in 5 BBY, when the rebellion is still a collection of disconnected cells. Season 2 carries Cassian Andor through to 1 BBY — the eve of Rogue One (0 BBY). The series ends approximately five days before A New Hope begins.

Star Wars Rebels — 5 BBY to 1 BBY

Rebels runs in parallel with Andor on the timeline (5 BBY → 1 BBY). The two shows occupy the same five-year window but follow different cells — Andor in the Aldhani/Coruscant axis, Rebels with the Ghost crew on Lothal and beyond. For a season-by-season breakdown of those dates, see our Star Wars Rebels timeline guide.

BBY/ABY in Canon vs Legends

Both timelines use BBY/ABY. The system was invented for Legends and was adopted wholesale into Canon.

Differences to know:

Legends has events as far back as ~30,000 BBY (the founding of the Galactic Republic) and as far forward as 138 ABY (Star Wars: Legacy comics).
Canon (Disney era) keeps a tighter range, currently spanning ~500 BBY (The Acolyte and surrounding High Republic content) to 35 ABY (The Rise of Skywalker).
The Old Republic MMO and KOTOR games are set ~3,600–4,000 BBY in Legends, with no direct Canon equivalent yet.

If you see a date older than ~500 BBY, you’re reading Legends material. The Battle of Yavin remains year zero in both timelines.

Why BBY/ABY Matters for Naming Your Characters

If you’re writing a Star Wars fan fiction, designing an RPG character, or making an OC for SWTOR, the BBY/ABY date you set them in changes everything:

Their technology (lightsaber design, ship class, comms)
Their politics (Republic? Empire? New Republic? Old Sith Empire?)
Their language and naming conventions (ancient titles vs Mando’a vs frontier-era surnames)
Which faction they could plausibly belong to

Pick an era first, then generate a name in that era. Our main name generator and species-specific generators (Jedi, Sith, Mandalorian, Chiss, Togruta, and 25+ more) all let you tune to the right time period.

For a deeper map of naming conventions across the saga, see:

The Short Version

**BBY = Before the Battle of Yavin. ABY = After the Battle of Yavin. Year zero is the Death Star’s destruction at the end of A New Hope.**

That’s the entire system. Once you know that anchor, every Star Wars date you see — 32 BBY, 9 ABY, 132 BBY for The Acolyte — slots into place instantly. It’s the calendar that holds the entire saga together.

May the Force — and the timeline — be with you.

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Frequently Asked Questions

What does BBY mean in Star Wars?

BBY stands for Before the Battle of Yavin. It’s the in-universe dating system Star Wars uses to mark years that occurred before the destruction of the first Death Star at the end of A New Hope (1977). So 32 BBY means 32 years before that battle — the year Episode I: The Phantom Menace takes place.

What does ABY stand for in Star Wars?

ABY stands for After the Battle of Yavin. It dates events that happen after the Death Star is destroyed in A New Hope. The Empire Strikes Back is set in 3 ABY (three years after Yavin), Return of the Jedi in 4 ABY, and The Mandalorian Season 1 in 9 ABY.

What is BBY in Star Wars?

BBY is the Star Wars equivalent of "BC" in the real world — it’s the abbreviation for Before the Battle of Yavin, the in-universe year zero. Every official Star Wars film, series, novel, comic, and game uses BBY (and its counterpart ABY) to anchor dates on the galactic timeline.

Why is the Battle of Yavin year zero?

Because the destruction of the first Death Star was the single most galaxy-changing event in modern Star Wars history — the moment the Rebellion stopped looking like a rumor and started looking like a war. Lucasfilm chose it as year zero in 1995 when expanded-universe authors needed a single dating anchor. It also conveniently centers the timeline on the original 1977 film.

Is BBY/ABY canon or Legends?

Both. The BBY/ABY system was created in the Legends-era reference book *Star Wars: The Essential Chronology* (2000) and was kept by Disney Lucasfilm when they rebuilt the canon in 2014. Every Disney+ show, sequel film, and post-2014 novel uses BBY/ABY dating.

What year is The Mandalorian set in?

The Mandalorian Seasons 1–3, The Book of Boba Fett, Ahsoka, and Skeleton Crew are all set in 9 ABY — nine years after Return of the Jedi (4 ABY) and five years after the Empire’s fall. This places them between the Original Trilogy and the sequel trilogy (which begins in 34 ABY).

What year is Andor set in?

Andor Season 1 spans 5 BBY to 1 BBY. Season 2 covers 4 BBY to 1 BBY, ending right at the lead-in to Rogue One (which is 0 BBY, in the days immediately before A New Hope).

What year is The Phantom Menace set in?

Episode I: The Phantom Menace is set in 32 BBY — thirty-two years before the Battle of Yavin. Attack of the Clones is 22 BBY, Revenge of the Sith is 19 BBY, and the Clone Wars between them lasted three years.

How does BBY/ABY work for character naming?

Naming conventions shift across eras. High Republic-era names (~250–100 BBY) feel different from Imperial-era names (19 BBY – 4 ABY) or New Republic names (post-4 ABY). Our [Star Wars name generator](/) lets you select an era so the names you generate match the period.

Is there an in-universe term besides BBY/ABY?

Yes — in-universe characters wouldn’t say "19 BBY"; they’d say something like "the year of the Republic’s fall" or use the Galactic Standard Calendar’s year count. BBY/ABY is the out-of-universe shorthand used by fans, reference books, and Lucasfilm timeline keepers. It’s the system every wiki and Star Wars book uses.