Leap year babies: Meet the 12-year-old Kiwi turning 3, 16-year-old turning 4

Leap day baby Coco is celebrating her 12th birthday this year, or third if counting leap years. Photo / Sylvie Whinray

Coco Brown is turning 12 this year, but it’s only the third time in her life she gets to celebrate her real birthday — the Auckland intermediate student was born on leap day in 2012. So, what’s it like being a ‘leapling’ and how does she plan to celebrate this year?

February 29 is officially the rarest birthday, with just 130 births registered on this date in 2020 in New Zealand. Globally, it’s estimated 5 million people were born on a leap day.

Coco has celebrated her real birthday just twice in her life — in 2016 and in 2020 — so how does she feel about celebrating it for the third time this year?

“It is quite exciting when I do get to celebrate it and on my non-birthdays, it’s a bit like, ‘oh, where’s my birthday’?” she tells the NZ Herald the week before leap day.

“I am actually having a party this weekend and I’m very excited for that.

“We’re just setting up on the back lawn, inviting a few school friends over,” she says, adding that she hopes her birthday presents include “lollies, skincare and a Stanley cup”.

Normally, Coco celebrates her birthday on February 28, so she still gets to celebrate during her birthday month. And mum Kylie reveals Coco had been due to be born on February 14 — Valentine’s Day.

“It was a surprise actually, she came really late,” she recalls. “And then ended up a leapling, so she was way overdue.”

Asked what it’s like being a parent to a leap year baby, she admits she “feels sad for them sometimes”.

Coco's mum, Kylie Brown, says her daughter was due on Valentine's Day, but didn't arrive until Leap Day in 2012. Photo / Sylvie Whinray

“The people in their class tell them they’re the youngest in the class all the time.”

But Brown is looking forward to celebrating her daughter and making the most of the occasion.

“It’s going to be a good day, we’re going to make sure that we have some cake — and it’s nice and sunny and all those things, it’s a good time of year for it.”

‘It’s definitely cool having the rarest birthday’

Rosa Joiner is turning 16 on leap day, marking just the fourth time she’s had a “real” birthday. The Auckland high school student says it feels good to be celebrating on the actual day this year.

“The last time I did was when I was 12, so each year I can barely remember the last birthday,” she admits.

“I just celebrate on a different day each year, and then when my actual birthday comes around, it’s just more of a bigger deal I guess. It’s just kind of another day because my family does still celebrate my birthday.”

Rosa Joiner is turning 16 on leap day.

This year, she’s going out for dinner with her family for her birthday and having her friend group around on the weekend — and has haircare products and new clothes on her wish list.

She remembers being teased sometimes about her birthday when she was younger.

“I used to get annoyed about it, but now I don’t really care because I see the positives,” she explains. “It’s definitely cool having the rarest birthday.”

Does being born in a leap year affect your rights?

The concept of having a birthday only once every four years can be a confusing one, and raise eye-rolling questions — if you’re a leapling, you’ve heard them all before.

In legal terms, countries have their own conventions — for example, in the US there’s no official stance on what a leap year baby’s birthdate is in “off years”. In the UK, it’s legally March 1. In New Zealand, it’s officially February 28, so leaplings still get to celebrate during their actual birth month.

Leaplings can still vote, drink, and drive at the same ages as everyone else. So someone turning 16 during a non-leap year could technically sit their learner driver’s licence test on February 28; or if they’re turning 18, have their first alcoholic drink or vote in a general election. No one is going to turn you away from a bar simply because “you’re actually not 18 yet”.

In the years since 1904, there have been just 3875 registered births in New Zealand on a leap day, according to Registrar-General of Births, Deaths, and Marriages Russell Burnard.

Why do we have leap years?

We know a year lasts 365 days because that’s how long it takes Earth to get around the sun — but what you might not know is that it takes roughly 365 and a quarter days.

Having an extra day in the calendar every four years helps keep it synced with Earth’s travels around the sun.

The ancient Romans’ calendar added up to 355 days instead of 365, because it was based on the moon’s phases and cycles. When they realised their calendar wasn’t matching up with the seasons, they tacked on an extra month called Mercedonius every two years.

Julius Caesar introduced a new calendar in 45BC that added an extra day to February every four years. But this turned out to be a bit of an over-compensation because people realised Earth takes 365.24219 days — 11 minutes less than previously thought.

In 1582, Pope Gregory XII signed an order declaring every fourth year would be a leap year except “century years”, or those divisible by 100, unless they were also divisible by 400. It might sound complicated, but it made the calendar more accurate, and we now know it as the Gregorian calendar.

Bethany Reitsma is an Auckland-based journalist covering lifestyle and entertainment stories who joined the Herald in 2019. She specialises in telling Kiwis’ real-life stories, money-saving hacks and anything even remotely related to coffee.