Decorated Dates: Is Your Birthday Linked to Award-Winning Success?
- By Esther
September is said to be the most common birthday month worldwide, but which birthdays produce the most prestigious award winners?
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Researchers at MyHeritage have gathered the birthdays of 1000 recipients of numerous prestigious prizes to discover the birthdays most likely to win you an award.
From the Oscars to the Grammys and even the Olympics, some awards have been found to favor winners with certain birthdays over others. So, if you’re wondering whether you might be raising a future Nobel Prize winner or World Cup hero, these are the birthdays that might increase your child’s chances of bringing home a trophy.
The Most Successful Birthdays
Out of 365 days in a year, April 30 proves to be the birthday that has produced the most winners. Among 1,000 winners or shortlisted nominees, 11 were born on this date, including Oscar-winner Cloris Leachman, one of the most celebrated actresses in history.
2 scientists and Nobel Prize laureates share this birthday, Theodore W. Schultz and Simon Kuznets — as well as 3 winners of the Palme d’Or: Lars von Trier, Jacques Audiard, and the only woman to have ever won the award, Jane Campion.
Other celebrities who share this successful birthday include American rapper Travis Scott, Israeli actress Gal Gadot, and American actress Kirsten Dunst.
The second birthday most associated with winning prestigious awards is another April birthday: the 27th, with a total of 8 out of 1,000 winners and shortlisted nominees sharing this birthday.
Winners with this birthday include American singer and Grammy winner Lizzo and British actress and Golden Globes winner Sally Hawkins, as well as 2 Michelin Star chefs, Martin Berasategui and Léa Linster.
8 birthdays are associated with 7 winners each, including January 20, March 23, March 26, April 29, September 14, September 26, November 12, and December 30.
Some winners with these birthdays include American musician and Grammy winner Chaka Chan — born on March 23 — and British singer Amy Winehouse, born on September 14.
The Most Successful Months
April proves to be the month that produces the most successful award winners and nominees, with 99 recipients having birthdays during this month. These include Oscar-winner Emma Thompson and Grammy-winner Barbra Streisand. Other celebrities with April birthdays include Harry Potter star Emma Watson, Queen Victoria, and Victoria Beckham.
November came in second place, with 94 winners and nominees having been born in this month. These include Oscar and Golden Globe winner Anne Hathaway and Michelin Star winner Gordan Ramsay.
March was the third most successful month, with 92 awardees having been born in the third month of the year. Five-time Grammy winner Mariah Carey and The Palme d’Or winner Quentin Tarantino were born this month.
February is the least common month to be born in according to the CDC, and this may explain why only 58 winners and nominees were born during this month. These include Oscar winner Daniel Kaluuya and Portuguese footballers and World Cup winners Cristiano Ronaldo and Pepe.
Oscars
6 birth dates prove to be the most successful for Oscar winners, each with 2 Oscar winners. They are January 20, April 14, May 7, July 1, October 4, and November 2. Winners with these birthdays include American actor Adrian Brody (April 14) and British actress Julie Christie (April 14).
March is the best birthday month for Oscar successes, with 13 winners and nominees having been born during March. Next comes April with 11 birthdays, while January, June, and November are tied for third place with 9 birthdays each.
Grammys
The month most likely to produce musical icons is May, with 15% of artists born that month. Lyrical geniuses such as Adele, Stevie Wonder, and Cher were all born in May. November is the worst month for musicians with only 4% of births in that month — though it did give us the legendary Tina Turner.
Olympians
The Olympics have been running since 1896. While the events have changed throughout the years, the spirit of celebration of human accomplishment remains the same. Every 4 years, gold medals are won by talented and hard-working athletes. Many individuals have won multiple gold medals — most notably swimmer Michael Phelps with a total of 28 Olympic medals with 23 gold medals, and U.S. gymnast Simone Biles, with 30 Olympic and World Championship medals.
For joint first place, January and October each account for 12% of the Olympic athlete birthdays. 24 athletes from both months have won 100 medals between them, leaving December in their dust with only 3% of athlete birthdays.
Nobel Prize
Each year, 6 Nobel Prizes are awarded to individuals who have achieved extraordinary things for humankind. The award categories include Physics, Chemistry, Medicine, Physiology, Peace, and Literature. Famous individuals such as Martin Luther King Jr., Marie Curie, Mother Teresa, and Albert Einstein light up this list of intellectuals.
A tie between 2 months makes both March and June the best month for Nobel Prize winners: biophysicist Sir Bernard Katz was born in March, and philosopher and writer Jean-Paul Sartre — who notably attempted to refuse the award as “a writer should not allow himself to be turned into an institution” — was born in June.
Methodology
Taking 1000 people from 10 prestigious awards we gathered their birthdates, then collated all the dates for each award to find the award-winning birthdays.
The 10 awards used in the data were:
- The Oscars
- The Nobel Prize
- Olympics
- The Grammys
- The World Cup
- Michelin Stars
- The Booker Prize
- The Golden Globes
- The Pulitzer Prize
- The Palme d’Or
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