Genghis Khan was born in 1162, the commonly accepted date among historians. His birth name was Temüjin, and later Mongol traditions connected his birth to his father Yesügei’s victory over a Tatar leader.
The exact year is not certain because medieval sources disagree. Some records support 1155, while another tradition gives 1167. Most modern historians nevertheless use 1162, and Mongolia commemorated the 800th anniversary of his birth in 1962.
Temüjin spent his early life facing clan rivalries, poverty, captivity, and shifting alliances. He unified many Mongol tribes and was proclaimed Genghis Khan in 1206. He died in 1227, leaving an expanding empire that his sons and grandsons continued to enlarge.
A common mix-up is treating 1162 as an undisputed birth date. It is better understood as the standard scholarly and popular date, rather than a precisely documented certainty.