Famous People's Birthdays

Analysis of Famous People's Birth Dates

There exists a popular belief, that the date of a person's birth is correlated to his (or her) personality, talents, preferences and, to some extent, the chance of success in life. We were curious if this is true and decided to do some simple calendar related calculations to verify it. Particularly, we wondered in what days, months and seasons of the year most of the famous people (of various occupations) were born.

For this purpose, we gathered the dates of births of over 46 000 famous people from English wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org) listed for each day of the year. Using this data we created calendar "heat maps" for each month and day of the year, showing the number of the famous people that were born on each specific date through thousands of years of human history. Results were divided into "loose" categories based on the occupations (professions). The results are listed below and on the pages related to specific categories.

How to read the results?

The more warmer the color, the more people were born on that day or month. Below each table there are also bar charts showing the number of births for each month and (astronomical) season of the year.

Sportsmen

MonthTotal12345678910111213141516171819202122232425262728293031
January111153402336312841342458344138354338293336304267282725263234343536
February9804038312133244330383932313551393526472738323520363430313727
March1130384337110382128463224284024362830265831343428344832333641292835
April924353138412833262824302727293719282936502635343024352934333315
May99330392738282224362529293332413631303740432639313041182532383231
June857262626282827312728212638272334422416283636271938233324232844
July86026281740232332202128272532202824262740323042273330243918212136
August926413329303332253034352831274012382334243031293440243830303427
September998403329264226434742223733292623283434492138303231422531353733
October98846242631273522312938314433393235252026352935263434283332273546
November833222639232919363424241534222425213226302632332823282920403138
December90326313428292731393123242934382422332632282222352333223332233633
By Month
1111
Jan
980
Feb
1130
Mar
924
Apr
993
May
857
Jun
860
Jul
926
Aug
998
Sep
988
Oct
833
Nov
903
Dec
By Season of the Year
3135
Winter
2893
Spring
2777
Summer
2698
Fall
See detailed statistics for sportsmen

Writers

MonthTotal12345678910111213141516171819202122232425262728293031
January6033014131514241121281918172426192332221523921121623152122211718
February5061716221914251519142218191811191917252319151513122116171610
March72017221686201514171820252522181730212714262024201815182628282627
April763213121322634292127263423272125291726143021261931272130262523
May9393530343732213533363819303830333633312525282437253635353828139
June494122216192116111117121019141814171720131832171416162017191412
July500111819912161271617172012231914121615181315192117172520191219
August49916241417101614131420921111228161415252613211622221515131611
September555151613111821182527172417122323231614201817212117191524161519
October49723181420199198132217141511201522221716161516231115131671615
November563241323142120222120192119151821221124141016172119281117192122
December5051715121321161622201613141712142220181613161121242015181161917
By Month
603
Jan
506
Feb
720
Mar
763
Apr
939
May
494
Jun
500
Jul
499
Aug
555
Sep
497
Oct
563
Nov
505
Dec
By Season of the Year
1741
Winter
2301
Spring
1553
Summer
1549
Fall
See detailed statistics for writers

Artists

MonthTotal12345678910111213141516171819202122232425262728293031
January193091555967537058706066587167514959825364785959456648556554735471
February18316460735458785458625374607169596179667468706551696963566429
March2069625462190595760645669756260697066777265616558585262585751705870
April21189378909073887977777267757954451006578706458667664535957467451
May202364596062605459686370597684756077586457736262687464695577706258
June1700555960635566505956604949565265515759605873584454534955616648
July177071386151485654595572656541435653735851745960685055556454485360
August1682515853487553566940554754415756647371705648525050735154625441
September21056453515666716266755165786882658778748378657372651097264686777
October184385695755604561646372525059595862596345605355456870495967505673
November1726695248586760645452625867547156505868416656615750524153546562
December178050445057554851647950646558645183577159556452544865505452546151
By Month
1930
Jan
1831
Feb
2069
Mar
2118
Apr
2023
May
1700
Jun
1770
Jul
1682
Aug
2105
Sep
1843
Oct
1726
Nov
1780
Dec
By Season of the Year
5712
Winter
6012
Spring
5451
Summer
5402
Fall
See detailed statistics for artists

Scientists & engineers

MonthTotal12345678910111213141516171819202122232425262728293031
January24413528119568121395555610117571837310111069
February226395961856126898111058773215775710153
March267114924851184287108127711755512135148127711
April237126567135878581410107566861397988849
May2219510481066659641061058799715751411766
June2657389101271177991210713121096215869851177
July2021064354599851355123875758756389459
August2137456453610511910795444771411581110679
September2294577510659766991265662101481188118910
October202106357115510776069635101256894647389
November2264775821181264547869815104810777109711
December21153649556109134768610896313659757755
By Month
244
Jan
226
Feb
267
Mar
237
Apr
221
May
265
Jun
202
Jul
213
Aug
229
Sep
202
Oct
226
Nov
211
Dec
By Season of the Year
707
Winter
756
Spring
637
Summer
643
Fall
See detailed statistics for scientists & engineers

Other professions and occupations

MonthTotal12345678910111213141516171819202122232425262728293031
January4693818161116211818161916141016111714151113171014713141214121513
February38117161291121511913141715141612181310111022111217199143
March551131813481915131315917237152020192218172014142014172024231417
April567171419151822182721162025281620271918132715191822151017152313
May5912116231311171626919181826172216151816192229221523212324241715
June41798916722910920161217111813112013102413161610111520239
July420141591722101122121314109192420715102291116111311131091012
August36698161712111281217161312615131016107910162012121212815
September4811481518221417251714192019121491520141413151814191820151712
October39015117151415161010109131412131671931761416221110121613816
November380161522141212137141014141171371810121210151311161310131313
December371613771116181115101510161389812111516915181414101571111
By Month
469
Jan
381
Feb
551
Mar
567
Apr
591
May
417
Jun
420
Jul
366
Aug
481
Sep
390
Oct
380
Nov
371
Dec
By Season of the Year
1328
Winter
1639
Spring
1267
Summer
1150
Fall
See detailed statistics for other professions and occupations

What do the results show?

Theoretically, the numbers of famous people born each day should be similar, assuming that the same number of people (including non-famous) were born each day of the year and there is no real correlation between the date of the year you were born and a chance of becoming famous. But it is nearly impossible to verify that because the statistics gathered relate to many centuries and regions of the world. However, the size of the data gathered is large enough to wonder if the differences shown are the sings of some hidden connection between the person's birth date and his (or her) chance of becoming famous.

How reliable are the results?

We tried to create accurate statistics, but the results presented should be regarded only as a curiosity for various reasons. Firstly, we had no control over the selection of the people whose birth dates were taken into account, because wikipedia is edited by thousands of volunteers all over the world. Secondly, we had no guarantee that all the interesting people were listed on wikipedia (as of May 2012). There could be also some minor counting errors due to misspellings.