Does a February 29 Leap Year Birthday Make You Special? - The Compass Blog | Digital Identity and People Search

Those poor people with a leap year birthday. They officially only have a birthday once every four years. They seldom get a “real” birthday. That was probably good news for leaper grandmothers when they celebrated their Sweet 16s. It’s fun to think that those skipped calendar dates won’t really add up. Unfortunately, research fails to show that leapers age more slowly than everyone else.

So, exactly what does it mean to be a leaper? Are they just like the rest of us? Here, we leverage insights from Spokeo’s access to more than 14 billion records to get to the bottom of it.

Famous Birthdays

If you are one of the lucky people with a February 29th birthday, you’re in good company. Who are some famous leapers? Although there’s only a one in 1,461 chance that a baby will be born on leap year day, an even smaller chance exists they will turn out to be famous. But there are a few. Famous February 29 birthdays include, but are not limited to:

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Tony Robbins, self-help author and motivational speaker
Ja Rule, American rapper
Dinah Shore (1916–1994), American singer and actress
Tony Sabato, Jr., Italian-American model and actor
Pedro Zamora (1972–1994), Cuban-American AIDS educator and television personality

The most famous leaper of all doesn’t make the list because some say he’s not even a real person. This animated character — Superman — was purchased by DC Comics on leap year day in 1938, which would technically be his birthdate to be February 29th. So, if you’re looking for a real person born on leap year day, or any other day for that matter, how do you find them?

Interesting Leap Year Facts

Lots of myths and folklore surround leapers. But when you analyze the actual data, they’re just as regular as the rest of us.

For example, those with leap year birthdays in the Spokeo database exhibit the following characteristics:

Leapers are not a rare occurrence. As mentioned, although a baby only has a 1 in 1,461 chance of being a leaper, there is a chance. But it’s no smaller than the chance of being born on any other day.
Leapers average 4.5 addresses in their lifetime. This figure aligns with U.S. Census data. According to census figures, the average American moves more than nine times after age 18. But once he or she reaches age 45, that number diminishes to an average of less than three.
Leapers average two full names. Although the numbers are declining, most women continue to change their last names when they marry. This makes it difficult to track them down through more traditional methods such as a Google search (and is part of the reason why Spokeo’s records create such powerful search results).
Leapers average three phone numbers. Finding a phone number for Jane Smith used to be as easy as flipping through the phone book. It’s no longer so simple. But because most people, leapers included, use at least one of their three phone numbers in nearly every transaction, the data is available and captured on public records.
Leapers average two email addresses. Although email addresses are as ubiquitous as the landline of yesterday, finding out how to reach someone via email can be surprisingly hard, especially because the average person — leap year babies included — has at least two email addresses. This is yet another area where Spokeo’s search capabilities can help, we’ve compiled the closest thing to a yellow pages of emails to date.
There’s more: Leapers, at 47 percent, are just as likely to be married and living anywhere in the United States as the general population.

Superstitions About Leap Year: Are Leapers Lucky… or Not?

More superstitions exist about leap year itself than superstitions about leap year birthdays. Many people say that leap year babies are lucky. But what’s lucky about having your birthday disappear from the calendar, not only almost every year, but especially on those significant milestone years? Turning 5? January 29th is not on your calendar. And it’s the same for 18, 21, 30 and 65.

Many computer systems just can’t… well… compute the date of leap year birthdays. Your driver’s license and your passport may not match. Facebook isn’t sure when to notify your contacts that it’s your birthday. And your friends become so confused that they avoid the whole birthday mention altogether.

How to Find a Leaper

Leapers can be just as difficult to locate as a person born on, say, November 3rd. But the good news is you don’t need much information to find a match in Spokeo.

Spokeo has over 181,000 leap year birthdays in its database
If you’re looking for a leaper, there’s a high probability that they are included in the Spokeo database.
Combine the birthday with any other information you have, such as name or location, and you have a good chance of finding a match.

Start with a free search to see what you discover. Then, if you’re on the right track, you can purchase a report. Between multiple names, phone numbers and email addresses, you’ll have everything you need to make a decision to contact the person.

Although the stats reveal no differences between leapers and everyone else, every individual is, of course, unique. Find your missing leaper by searching Spokeo.