Business Anniversaries or Technical Anniversaries

We’re often asked what is the name or symbol of an anniversary of an event which do tend to vary depending upon the actual event e.g. if we were asked what is the 50th Anniversary we would say ‘Golden’ this is because we specialise in Wedding Anniversaries and 50 years is a Golden Wedding.

If you want a full list of Wedding Anniversaries then see our Wedding Anniversary Traditional List as a starting point.

This however is not always the case as often the events also have other names which this post should hopefully clarify! The technical terms are more often than not derived from the Latin terms for the period.

The Latin phrase “dies natalis” has become a common term, adopted in many languages for the anniversary of an institution’s founding. This includes alma maters such as colleges or other schools that have been around since ancient times like Rome where they celebrated this day with festivals and rituals to honour their Patron Goddesses whom we know today as Juno/Iunona ( excuse my pronunciation).

AnniversaryTechnical Term to useOther Terms UsedNotes
Every MonthMonthly Technically these are
not anniversaries as
less than a year has
passed.
Every 3 monthsQuarterly 
Twice Yearly (every 6 months)Bi-annual 
1 yearAnnual  
2 yearsBiennial  
3 yearsTriennial  
4 yearsQuadrennial  
5 yearsQuinquennial  
6 yearsSexennial  
7 yearsSeptennial  
8 yearsOctennial  
9 yearsNovennial  
10 yearsDecennial  
11 yearsUndecennial  
12 yearsDuodecennial  
13 yearsTredecennial  
14 yearsQuattuordecennial  
15 yearsQuindecennial  
20 yearsVigintennial  
25 yearsSilver Jubilee* 
50 yearsQuinquagenaryGolden Jubilee* 
60 yearsSexagennialDiamond Jubilee* 
70 yearsSeptuagennial  
75 yearsDequascentennialDiamond JubileeLatin contraction of
de-quadrans which
means “a whole unit
less a quarter” (de means
“from”; quadrans means
“quarter”. 75 years is a
quarter century less than
a whole century or
75 = (-25 + 100)
100 yearsCentenary  
150 yearsSesquicentennial Term broken down as
sesqui- (one and a half)
centennial (100 years)
175 yearsDequasbicentennialDodrabicentennialAlternative
Latin form
200 yearsBicentennial  
250 yearsSestercentennial To express 2½ in Latin it
would be expressed as
“half-three”. The term relates
to being halfway [from the
second] to the third integer. In
Latin this is “Sestertius” which
is a contraction of semis
(halfway) tertius (third) –
hence Sestercentennial.
300 yearsTercentennialTricentennial 
400 yearsQuadricentennialQuatercentenary 
500 yearsQuincentennial  
600 yearsSexcentennial  
700 yearsSeptcentennial  
800 yearsOctocentennial  
900 yearsNonacentennial  
1000 yearsMillennial  
2000 yearsBimillennial  

*A ‘Jubilee’ in the western world is a term derived from the Bible and although historically had a different meaning it is used in this context to define a period of years indicated by the preceding word e.g. Silver Jubilee = 25 years, Golden Jubilee = 50 years and Diamond Jubilee = 60 years

Further Info:

Anniversary Names – Wikipedia

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