A search for the true meaning of 57 for ’57

/ February 11, 2014
A mysterious and magical number this year.

A mysterious and magical number this year. (commons.wikimedia)

Update: I have found the ultimate tribute to a fallen firefighter who discovered the magic of the match between birth year and age. That once-in-a-lifetime happening is now called the Beddian Birthday. Click here to read my piece about it.

A month ago, I wrote about the allure of the fact that everybody born in the year 1957 will turn 57 on their birthday this year.

If you’re in that club, like me, you can find the piece here.

I know there are people out there who are thinking about the significance.

The Google search terms WordPress displays on my dashboard tell me it’s so.

Just today, I found these oddly put questions that ended up with a click on this blog.

1. “If you are born in 1957, how old are u in 2014?” I did the math over and over and came up with 57 every time.

2. “If I’m 57 and I was born on July 29th, what year was I born?” That one’s tougher. But I would venture a guess that you were born in 1956. And that means you are OUT OF THE CLUB!

3. “turning 57 and I was born in 1957 is there a name for that?”

You got me there.

But good.

None of my own Googling has been able to come up with an official name for this year-born-matches-age-turned confluence.

I’ve been trying to come up with a catchy label.

The Born Phenomena. Yuck. Too movie-franchise.

The Yahoo Year. Ew. That’s a whole other site.

I’m stumped.

Any suggestions, my friends?

Source for 57 graphic here.

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64 thoughts on “A search for the true meaning of 57 for ’57”

  2. When I told people that it was my 57th birthday and I thought it was cool because I was born in 1957, several people told me that this is my “golden year”. I like the idea of having a whole golden year rather than just one golden day (“golden birthday”, your birth date matches the year – which – HEY!! mine also does – OMG just this moment realized it – as I was born on the 14th! holy crap – so is this my super duper golden birthday year day thingy or something?!?!?)

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  3. Count me as the 57th respondent.
    I couldn’t believe my good the karma required when I googled the words:
    “age equals birth year”
    and saw….
    56 thoughts on “A search for the true meaning of 57 for ’57”

    Mike
    10-1-1957

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  4. I was born on December 25, 1957. And my name is William Tracy Fowler. It was really tough having a birthday on Christmas when I was growing up. No birthday parties, gifts were like ”oh and by the way Tracy this present is also your birthday present”. So I must say that is wasn’t much of a birthday, but from coming from a loving family they made it the best I could ever ask for. So this year I am going to get me my first set of personalized license plates that will say WTF1225:-) . So happy 57th to all of us lucky ones this year. And a very, very, very early Happy Holiday. Tracy

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    • Tracey Fowler, know the feeling. My birthday is also 12/25/1957 also. Same things that you have mentioned; regarding parties and gifts. Everyone was opening up gifts on my birthday. Over my lifetime, more people have said. “You got screwed over”. My reply to them, I guess growing up, never new the difference. Only as I have gotten older it make more sense. Then my next line; guess what my mother wanted to name me “Merry Chris”. Think about living with that name? Thank God my grandfather stepped in and said, “Oh no”, she’ll have to correct people the rest of her life of the spelling of her name. So, I thank him. Sure it would have been different, but I’ll take the name my parents came up with instead, “Mary Jo”. Merry 57 Christmas to all of the others born on this wonderful date.

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  5. I have been trying to find info on the 57 thing too! My birthday is 5/7/57. So what birthday is that? I can not anything about it

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  6. I was 57 on 23rd March. I had realised that this was a special birthday and told my friends that. I didn’t realise that I might also be special in realising or in acknowledging this. On my birthday I also made the joke/observation that I used to be the youngest person in the world. Today I decided to try find out how long I was likely to have been such. I googled a few words and came up with this page, so having distracted me, maybe you can tell me for how long in 1957 I was the youngest person, or at least how many people were born that year, I’ll do the math from there.

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      • At the moment you’re born, you are the youngest person in the world. I have no idea how long, on average that lasts, but it’s a fact. For at least some time, you are a world record holder.

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      • I get it now. With how big the world is and the many many millions of us born in 1957 — there are charts I found by googling, and I linked to an America-specific one on one of my blog posts about the year born/age match — I don’t think any of us celebrating our Beddian Birthday this year held the record for more than a few seconds, Dave.

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  7. Pingback: Don’t give me no lies and … | markbialczak

  8. after reading that post of you, I saw a friend of mine whose father turns 57 this year, I told him they must be lucky this year and should do something about it. LOL he was so shocked 🙂

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  9. My brother’s a 1957 baby brother. I think of him and my other brother, 1959 as “babies!” Steak, grilled onions with the 57 sauce and also, a great big salad with 5 or 7 veggies included. I am not really original, so sorry, Mark!

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    • Ask your baby brother if he thinks is a special 57 for ’57 year, Robin. I’d be interested to hear if he’s thought about this year as significant. Thanks for your big meal suggestion. That would be delicious.

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      • Today shouldn’t be there. I was stinking of myself I was born in 60 if I make it another 6 years I will be 60 years later. Not too many of us will make the age we were born in. Like someone born in 1990 the chances of many saying 90 years later are slim. So 57 years later after 1957 is 2014. Does it make sense?

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      • Yes, the later you are born in a decade, the older you’d have to be to match that year with your age. You have to make it six years longer than I did, even though you were born just three years later. It is all fascinating to me. It makes sense.

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      • I didn’t think of that. wow it is a mystery. Did you hit the lottery? There’s a commercial here in NY where they have this woman wondering they put round pizza in a square box and the slices are triangles. The narrator at the end asks if you hit the lottery what will you think about? 😆

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      • Oh yea I forgot. They say the memory is the first to go. Mine is just about gone. My daughters live in Brooklyn. I lived in Oneonta back in 79 when my daughter was born a preemie. They moved her to Syracuse because it was a bigger hospital. Didn’t see much just snow. It was December/January.

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      • I was born in Greenpoint, Polish neighborhood back then, stayed through kindergarten. Always loved the city because my grandparents stayed in Brooklyn. Oneonta, then Syracuse in the winter for you, huh. You missed out on how pretty it is up here the other three seasons.

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      • Yes the spring time is the best. My girlfriend and I were riding our bikes home after partying all night. The sun was coming up over the train tracks. The new spring blossoms were beautiful shades of green and there were pretty yellow and purple flowers growing along the side of the tracks. The sun was bouncing off the tracks and shining on every piece of foliage out there. My girlfriend and I don’t stay in touch but we spoke a couple of years ago and she remember the same scene. I wish I could paint because that vision has stayed with me for thirty-four years.

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      • Oh yea I forgot. They say the memory is the first to go. Mine is just about gone. My daughters live in Brooklyn. I lived in Oneonta back in 79 when my daughter was born a preemie. They moved her to Syracuse because it was a bigger hospital. Didn’t see much just snow. It was December/January.

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  16. It’s semi prime.
    The product of two prime numbers – 19 and 3. That’s all I could come up with, on such short notice.
    But seriously, dude, if I had the time? I’d start researching this number like it was my JOB. I dig numbers.
    I’m so geeky.

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  21. The Golden Number? The Golden Ratio is already a concept, and according to Google:

    ” Mathematical Concept

    In mathematics, two quantities are in the golden ratio if their ratio is the same as the ratio of their sum to the larger of the two quantities. The figure on the right illustrates the geometric relationship. (Wikipedia)”

    Close… no cigar… Humph…

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    • Yes, the “golden” term also seems to already have been adopted for the year that you turn the age of the date you were born, Chris. Born Feb. 16, it’s in the year you turn 16. Or so I recall from googling when I wrote the darn thing a month ago. Good try, though!

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