How are Jon Snow and Daenerys related?
Daenerys is Jon’s aunt. He is her nephew. And because their family had a twenty five year gap between siblings, the nephew is a year older than the aunt.
The short answer
Daenerys Targaryen is Jon Snow’s paternal aunt. Jon’s father was Rhaegar Targaryen, the eldest son of Aerys II and Rhaella. Daenerys was their youngest child. Rhaegar and Daenerys were brother and sister, so Rhaegar’s son is Daenerys’s nephew.
Jon was born in 283 AC and Daenerys in 284 AC, which makes him one year older than his own aunt.
The chain, one link at a time
- 01
Aerys II married his own sister
Aerys II Targaryen and Rhaella Targaryen were brother and sister, married in 246 AC on their father’s reading of a prophecy. Every child below descends from that single couple.
- 02
They had three children who lived
Rhaegar in 259 AC, Viserys in 276 AC, and Daenerys in 284 AC. Rhaella lost many others. The twenty five year gap between eldest and youngest is what makes the rest of this confusing.
- 03
Rhaegar fathered Jon on Lyanna Stark
At the Tower of Joy in Dorne, 283 AC. Lyanna died of childbed fever and made Eddard Stark promise to raise the boy as his own bastard, because Robert Baratheon was killing Targaryen children.
- 04
So Jon is the son of Daenerys’s brother
That makes Daenerys his paternal aunt and Jon her nephew. Rhaegar died at the Trident in 283 AC, roughly a year before Daenerys was born, so aunt and nephew never had a relative in common who was still alive.
The last three generations, drawn
The red link between Aerys and Rhaella marks a marriage between blood relatives. The dashed line to Jon marks a parentage the books have never confirmed.
Drag to move around, zoom with + and −. Tap a name for detail.
Want the whole tree on paper?
Diagram key
One warning about canon
This answer is settled in the television series and unsettled in the books. It is worth knowing which one you are arguing from.
In the show
Confirmed. Bran sees Rhaegar and Lyanna wed in a secret ceremony in Dorne after Rhaegar’s marriage to Elia was annulled. Lyanna names the boy Aegon Targaryen. Jon is a trueborn heir with a claim ahead of Daenerys.
In the books
Not confirmed. Jon’s mother is never identified in A Song of Ice and Fire and Eddard Stark is the stated father. The secret marriage, the annulment and the name Aegon are all inventions of the adaptation. R plus L equals J is the leading theory, not a fact.
Follow the line further back
- Jon Snow’s Targaryen family tree Grandparents, uncles, half-siblings and his claim
- Daenerys Targaryen’s family tree Her ancestors all the way back to Aegon the Conqueror
- Why the Targaryens married their siblings Every close marriage in the family, and what it cost them
- The complete Targaryen family tree All twenty one generations on one interactive chart
Related questions
Is Daenerys Jon Snow’s aunt?
Yes. Daenerys is the youngest child of Aerys II and Rhaella. Jon’s father Rhaegar was their eldest child, so Daenerys is Jon’s paternal aunt and Jon is her nephew.
How is Daenerys younger than her own nephew?
Rhaegar was born in 259 AC and Daenerys in 284 AC, a gap of twenty five years. Jon was born in 283 AC, the year before Daenerys, which makes the nephew one year older than the aunt.
What is Jon Snow’s real name?
In the television series Lyanna names him Aegon Targaryen with her dying breath. In the books his mother is never identified, so the name Aegon is show canon only.
Who has the stronger claim to the Iron Throne, Jon or Daenerys?
Jon, if Rhaegar and Lyanna were truly wed. A trueborn son of the king’s eldest son outranks the king’s daughter under Westerosi succession. Jon never pressed the claim.
Is Jon Snow related to the Starks?
Yes, through his mother Lyanna Stark. Eddard Stark is his uncle, not his father, which makes Robb, Sansa, Arya, Bran and Rickon his cousins rather than his half-siblings.
Did Jon and Daenerys know they were related?
Not for most of the story. Bran Stark and Samwell Tarly piece it together and tell Jon in season eight, after the relationship has already begun.