Platinum Birthday / Diamond Birthday

About

A Platinum Birthday or Diamond Birthday refers to the year you turn the last two digits of your birth year. For example, someone born in 2013 would have their platinum birthday in the year they turned 13, in 2026. The trend gained interest in February 2023 on TikTok, with people across social media sharing their thoughts about the phrase with memes and other formats of memes.

Origin

The platinum birthday refers to that once-in-a-lifetime birthday where the age of your birth year matches the last two digits of the year you were born. The concept derives from the "Golden Birthday,", a date when people’s ages match their birth date, and the credit for the concept goes to the American author Joan Bramsch.^[1] She conceived the idea in the 1950s to give each of her five children a separate “golden” celebration when their birth dates matched their ages.

Spread

In early 2021, the platinum birthday trend was already being discussed on TikTok,^[2] with users like @sammielewiss explaining how it works. Her video (below, left) was posted on January 21st, 2021, receiving 747,900 plays and 79,500 likes in two years. The trend had a massive increase in interest in February 2023 after TikTok^[3] user @misshaleymichelle addressed the trend by calling it a "Diamond Birthday" on February 4th, 2023. Her video (below, right) garnered 1.4 million plays and 108,400 likes in two weeks.

Some people felt a bit frustrated with the trend, as the likelihood of having a platinum birthday is more directed to Gen Z kids and teens born after the 2000s than to millennials born in the 1980s or 1990s. TikTok^[4] user @insydemymind explained in a post that her "Golden Birthday" will be when she turns 29 years old and that she'll have to wait until 92 to have her "Platinum Birthday." The post, uploaded on February 12th, 2023, received 8.9 million plays and 1.2 million likes in two days (seen below).

Other users completely missed out on their golden and platinum birthdays, like TikTok^[5] user @kaylejywnlz, who shared a video on February 12th, 2023 making fun of this fact. Her post garnered 1.2 million plays and 180,400 likes in two days (seen below).

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References