No shortage of 12s for Olivia

Olivia Thorburn is 12 today, the 12/12/12. Photo / Hawke's Bay Today

Olivia Thorburn turned 12 today, and she is in very fine company.

The Napier youngster is also unique in that her birthday falls on the 12th day of the 12th month of the 12th year of the 21st century - a day of numerical 12/12/12 coincidences.

It is a day with a lined up dateline of the same numerals which won't happen again for a long, long time - to be precise, the 1st of January, 3001.

All very special and significant, but made even more so given Olivia is turning that number also.

Olivia said she felt pretty special having a birthday on all the 12s, although she actually celebrated it last weekend with some mates at Splash Planet.

"But I'll have to get another cake I suppose," her mother Carolyn said yesterday. "Because it is a little bit special."

The family had been talking about the 12/12/12 factor a lot recently, and Olivia's older sister Lauren, who is set to turn 14, wondered how she missed out on it. "Couldn't plan that one exactly right," Mrs Thorburn laughed.

While Olivia had her party last Saturday, she had to wait until today to get her presents - which Mrs Thorburn said she would likely tear into before heading off to school - which itself had something special lined up.

She is on the Taradale Intermediate School prizegiving list.

Olivia is in esteemed company in being a "12/12/12'er".

Dionne Warwick turns 71 today and fellow singer Connie Francis turns 73.

American actress Jennifer Connelly will celebrate her 41st big day while English actor Bill Nighy becomes eligible for a pensioner's pass by turning 65.

December 12 was also the birthday of the late Frank Sinatra.

And there is a Royal flavour in the birthday list also, for on December 12, 1298, Albert II of Austria was born, and on the day in 1574, Anne of Denmark, the daughter of Danish KIng Frederik II, came into the world.

And it's a big day in Middle Earth - for December 12 was chosen for the first screenings of The Hobbit ... at one minute past midnight.