In a Class of 30, What Are the Odds Two Names Are Anagrams?
Take 30 kids born in 2025 in the United States. There is a 3.0% chance that two of them have names spelled with exactly the same letters, like Liam and Mila.
The birthday paradox is every math teacher's favorite party trick. In a class of 23, there is already a coin-flip chance that two kids share a birthday. We asked the same question about names, anagram edition, using every birth of the year.
- Class of 30
- 3.0%
- Class of 25
- 2.1%
- For a coin flip
- 141 kids
- Two random babies
- 1 in 14,210
The Odds Follow Naming Trends
The record is 2024, at 3.1% for a class of 30. The low point came in 1966, at 0.9%. When a few anagram pairs are in fashion at the same time, the curve climbs.
The Pairs Pushing the Odds Up
Liam and Mila alone account for 25.9% of this year's odds.
Between Us
Across a school of ten classes, the odds climb to 26%. In other words, a pair like Liam and Mila has a decent shot at sharing a playground without either of them noticing. The teacher probably won't notice either.
Common Questions
Why Is It Called the Birthday Paradox?
Because intuition gets it wrong. You would expect to need hundreds of kids for a coincidence, but what matters is the number of pairs. A class of 30 already holds 435 of them, and any one can land on two anagram names.
Do Two Kids with the Same Name Count?
No. Two Emmas are not an anagram pair, it takes two different names spelled with the same letters. Simple spelling swaps like Jeffrey and Jeffery are left out too.
How We Count
It is the birthday paradox applied to names. We take every pair of names spelled with the same letters, weight it by the number of babies born that year, then look at the 435 pairs of students in a class of 30. Simple spelling swaps like Jeffrey and Jeffery do not count.
Source Social Security Administration, national baby names file, births 1880 to 2025. Names with at least 500 births in total.
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