Is it common in your country to refer to people by birth year instead of age?

31 comments

1. Never heard of such a thing

2. Never heard of it.

3. No, I’ve never heard of such a thing.

4. it’s not the primary way to refer to one’s age but it’s not unheard of

5. We do it in Bulgaria

6. It’s not the most common but yes we have a way to say it easily.

   You can say eg I’m 30 or “I’m of 1996′

   I like using the second way as it doesn’t change each year haha.

7. We do that in Sweden too, I learned that they do it in Norway as well when I made a Norwegian friend in Greece a few years ago.

8. We may use “I’m from the 93” for the year (“soy del 93”)

9. Common in Finland. Maybe a nordic thing?

10. Yes. In Italy is common to say for example “sono del ‘90” (“I’m from 1990”) and even more common while referring to the age of a third person, like “è del ‘90” (“he’s from 1990”).

11. Yeah we do a similar thing in Finland. I think it decreases a bit the older you get (as it doesn’t happen due to the circumstances anymore, such as sports etc. like you mentioned) but it’s very common to use this phrasing here too.

12. Yeah, we do it in Turkey. You can say something like “I’m from ’86” rather than “I’m 40”. But to answer that, people would have to ask you which year you’re from (for example my hairdresser asked me once because it’s a bit impolite to ask a woman their age). If they ask how old you are, you say your age.

13. Very common in Sweden, mostly for kids and teens.

14. This is done in Iceland and Finland as well. You can say “I’m model 95” in similar way people talk about cars.

15. If someone asks how old i am, the answer is 19.
    If we are comparing ages, or in School or Sports like you mentioned, then im an 06′.

16. In Bulgaria is very common, yes.

17. Sounds like a more natural variation of “I’m year 3 (at school) “

18. It’s really uncommon in French.

    But I’ve noticed a trend amongst teenagers to do it for some years now. It’s usually associated with very strong characterisation, bordering prejudice.

19. Not in daily life, but it’s common in genealogy.
    For young childrens sports it’s usually devided on what school year they are in.

20. We do it in Hungarian, like I can say that my grandma is 48-as or a “48er” in English.

21. Birth year was common with my Korean bf. I want to say this is a Korean thing, but sometimes I find out they are just a NYC Queens Korean thing…

    ETA – Oops I didn’t see the sub name. I know Korea isn’t Europe. but I’ll leave the comment.

22. Very strange to us in the UK. Never heard of it before

23. Definitely not in Lithuania

24. Also common in Poland.

25. In Portuguese never heard it
    In German there is “ich bin Baujahr 1987” = I was “manufactured” (like in cars) 1987

26. Any chance it starts happening as adults when they don’t remember their age anymore?

27. No, but it would save me a lot of math! Every time someone asks how old I am or anyone in my family is, I have to subtract their birth year from the current year. It’d be so much easier to just say “Dad was born in ’54”

28. I’d say quite common in Spain too yeah many times when they ask me I’ll say I’m 37 or I’m from the 89. It just depends on… The mood I guess 😂.

    And similar with the age, in the end clases at school are by year everyone from the 89 would attend school together, at least initially. Which means people from the 90 are a year younger no matter the month.

    Ofc unless you’re a jerk you’ll understand that someone a few months or weeks apart it’s the same age even if on different year but on your early life you’ll have more relation with your same year

29. Until mid age you go by age, after that by birth year

30. Among peers where everyone is a similar age we sometimes say “ich bin Jahrgang 93” “I am born in/vintage 93” or similar. This sometimes helps identifying shared cultural signifiers. But beyond that, no.

31. It’s unusual but not really that unheard of. “Sou de 90” means “I’m from 90” and would mean someone was born in 1990. I hear it from time to time