My DH, during one day of boredom, calculated that if you have 20-odd people in a room, there's a greater than 50:50 chance of two of them sharing a birthday. (He says you can work it out easily in Excel if you want to check it. Personally, I'm quite happy to take his word for it. He's a bright boy and my brain hurts just thinking about it!)
My immediate family (parents, siblings with their spouses and kids, and aunts, uncles and first cousins - not the cousins' spouses or kids) consists of 53 people. It struck me today, that this is significantly more than 20. So it doesn't come as a surprise then, that there Nathan shares a birthday with someone, or that two of my nieces share a birthday.
But still - it's pretty weird, right? I mean, out of 366 possible days, and only 50-odd people, you would think that we'd need a LOT more people before we have any who share a birthday. Yet, we have 2 pairs who have theirs on the same day.
Aren't stats wonderful? Not terribly helpful, but definitely wonderful.
Actually, what is more amazing to me is that in my entire life, with my penchant for meeting new people, I've only ever met ONE person who shares my birthday (thinking of you today, Dave! Wondering how you and Liz are doing....) but I have met hordes of people with the same first name. One would think that, with there being a lot more than 366 names for girls, I would be more likely to meet someone who shares my birthday than one who shares my name.
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