Everyone’s birthday is special. However, what’s even more special is sharing your birthday with your spouse or parents. But can you imagine sharing your birthday with your entire family, which happens to be parents with a pair of twins? While this may sound really unbelievable, there’s a lucky couple in Ohio who shares their shared birthday with their twins as well! Was it all pre-planned, or just sheer luck? Let’s unravel the story of the couple sharing their birthday with their twins.

Meet the Cleveland Couple with the Same Birthday 

Scierra Blair and her fiancé José Ervin are the parents in the spotlight. In 2022, the Cleveland couple could not have imagined enjoying their shared birthday this way. They hadn’t even crossed paths at that time. They started dating a few days after Blair turned 31 and Ervin turned 30 in 2022.

Blair asked Ervin about his birthday and then revealed that she was born on the same day as him, i.e., on August 18th. He initially assumed she was telling a fake story. It wasn’t until Blair gave him her ID that he believed in the remarkable coincidence. The couple had various plans to celebrate their first joint birthday in 2023 together, like watching a game or going out for dinner. What they did not have in mind was spending the day in a maternity ward waiting for their babies to arrive.

When Ervin’s Birthday Wish Came True

The twins were born at Cleveland Clinic Hillcrest Hospital on August 18, 2023. The baby boy, José Ervin III, was born at 12:35 a.m., followed by the baby girl, Ar’ria Lannette Ervin, at 12:36 a.m. The father says the babies are his birthday gifts. The couple’s families have a history of twins, so it was no surprise when they found out they were expecting twins. Blair has fraternal twin brothers on her father’s side, and Ervin also has twins in his family.

How did this all happen? Well, the babies were originally due on August 28th. However, Ervin had wished for the babies to be born on the same day as the couple since the beginning of August, but he was not adamant about it. On August 17th, 2023, Blair received unexpected news during her regular doctor’s checkup. She was asked to get to the hospital the same day for a cesarean section since her son was in a breech position, and the doctor didn’t want to take any risks.

On the same evening, as doctors were gearing up for surgery, Ervin asked Blair if she could manage to wait a bit longer for the surgery until midnight so their babies could share their birthdays. He only made this request after ensuring his fiancé and babies were safe enough to take this step.

On the other hand, Blair wasn’t thrilled with the idea because she couldn’t eat anything before surgery. But she eventually got on board and had to resort to eating just ice chips for almost six hours before delivery. Ultimately, everything went well, and the twins entered the world. New parents are so happy that they are already making plans for their next birthday with their two little ones.

How Rare Is It for Two People to Share the Same Birthday?

Meeting someone who has the same birthday as you is beyond mere coincidence. Mathematicians call this phenomenon the “birthday problem” or “birthday paradox.”

Maths expert Joseph Mazur explains in one of his books, Fluke: The Math and Myth of Coincidence,  that if you’re in a big group with 366 people, there’s a hundred percent chance that two of them will have the same birthday because there are only 365 days in a year (except for leap years). However, what’s quite interesting is that you will need only 23 people in a room to bring the odds of finding two people with the same birthday to 50%.

As per Mazur, basic mathematics can explain unusual occurrences such as running into a friend or meeting someone who shares your birthday. In fact, an expert tested Mazur’s theory using 32 teams from the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup, where each team had exactly 23 players.

The mathematician calculated that 16 of the 32 teams would have a minimum of two players with a shared birthday, which was very close to the actual figure of 17. It proved that the theory is largely accurate. Have you found your birthday twin yet?