I know a person who started the first 3 kids' name with the initials of her former boy friend in correct order. What is the odds of this happening by accident?
*****
(1/26)*(1/26)*(1/26); or,
(0.038%)*(0.038%)*(0.038%);
0.00005%, which is
1 in (roughly) 17,500
*****
That's mathematics; let's put the results in context.
The probability that two randomly selected people have different initials is
17,575/17,576
or
99.9%
On that basis, it's reasonable - mathematically - to assert that the unique selection of initials you've described is not consistent with randomness.
However, let's continue this thought process to get a greater feel for the significance of the numbers. As we introduce additional individuals, we get a progressive, factorial situation in which the probability that each subsequent individual's initials are not the same as any other's is calculated by
1*(17575/17576)*(17574/17576)*(17573/17576)...
If you continue this calculation until you reach an arbitrary benchmark - I'd pick 50% - you can make a more appropriate, while still subjective, conclusion about the consistency between the observed event and randomness. You will, at that point, have reached the number of people at which there is a 50/50 chance that two will have the same initials.
Compare that number with...
(a) the number of people that the individual who chose those initials might be expected to know;
(b) the number of people residing in that person's state;
(c) the number of people in America;
...and so on, and you'll get a qualitative, if subjective, sense of how deep in the tails you are.
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