Same Name

As of the 23rd May 2022 this website is archived and will receive no further updates.

understandinguncertainty.org was produced by the Winton programme for the public understanding of risk based in the Statistical Laboratory in the University of Cambridge. The aim was to help improve the way that uncertainty and risk are discussed in society, and show how probability and statistics can be both useful and entertaining.

Many of the animations were produced using Flash and will no longer work.

This coincidence occurred on our honeymoon, late December 1968. (We are still married!). We went to stay at a large hotel in Bournemouth; we had been to this hotel many times before so the proprietors knew us quite well. They gave us one of their best rooms on the lower ground floor with direct access to the garden. There was only one other room on this floor occupied by a single gentleman named Mr Hollingsworth. My husband’s surname and one I had just acquired? HOLLINGSWORTH!!! Another incident involving surnames. We were going on a fly/coach touring holiday to New England (Boston USA etc.). We arrived at Heathrow Airport and found the courier. When we told her our surname, Hollingsworth, she said she had already ticked us off. It turned out there were another couple on the coach holiday named Hollingsworth. (We investigated but found no family connection at all). The coincidences didn’t stop there. As is the norm on this type of touring holiday every morning on the coach a few announcements are made including birthdays, anniversaries etc. On this particular day it was my birthday and I was duly called to the front of the coach to receive my small gift. The next person called who also had a birthday that same day was the OTHER Mr Hollingsworth – not my husband. Not only the same birthday but the same year as well.
Total votes: 222
Date submitted:Tue, 07 Feb 2012 15:17:32 +0000Coincidence ID:5957