Age is Just a Number: Unveiling the Real Ages of How I Met Your Mother Characters

Summary

Ted Mosby was 27 at the start of How I Met Your Mother and met Tracy when he was 35. He eventually ends up with Robin when he is 52.

Robin was 25 years old during season 1 of HIMYM and tied the knot with Barney when she reached 33. In the series finale, she reunites with Ted at the age of 50.

Barney, on the other hand, was the eldest among the group at 29 in the first season of HIMYM. He married Robin when he turned 37, embraced fatherhood at 44, and currently stands at 54 in the future timeline.

Ted, Lily, and Marshall are all the same age on the show How I Met Your Mother. Despite the show's numerous timelines, enough information was revealed to determine the ages of each main character. How old are the characters in How I Met Your Mother? The focus of the sitcom was primarily on Ted Mosby as he recounted the epic story of how he met the mother of his children, Penny and Luke. This narrative was the central theme of the entire series, with Ted narrating from 2030 while the events initially unfolded in 2005. The show then followed significant moments in the lives of Ted and his closest friends: Marshall, Lily, Barney, and Robin.

How Old Is Ted?

: Determining the Ages of the Characters in How I Met Your Mother and How I Met Your Father

In terms of the ages of the characters in HIMYM, Ted Mosby is the most Googled person. He was born in April 1978, making him 27 years old at the start of How I Met Your Mother. The series initially followed a one-calendar-year-per-season pattern, and in the third season's 17th episode, "The Goat," Ted celebrates his 30th birthday. It wasn't until the fifth season's premiere at Robin and Barney's wedding night that Ted finally met Tracy, also known as the "Mother," when he was 35 years old.

Ted was in his mid-to-late 30s when the couple had their kids whereas Tracy was in her early 30s. By the time they got married in 2020, Ted was 42 and Tracy is around 36. Unfortunately, Tracy and Ted's romance is short-lived, and she eventually succumbs to her illness in 2024, when Ted is 46 and Tracy was 40. Ted's children give their father their blessing to begin seeing Robin again in the 2030 timeline. The Ted and Robin relationship begins again when Ted is 52. In terms of the question "how old are the characters in How I Met Your Mother?", Ted is the same age as Lily and Marshall.

How Old Is Robin?

Ted's age throughout the key moments in the series.

In season 1 of HIMYM, Robin was the youngest among the characters, being 25 years old with a birthdate in 1980. In episode 3 of season 5, "Robin 101," Robin's birthdate was revealed as Barney learned about her through Ted. Robin and Barney tied the knot in May 2013, when she turned 33. Although HIMYM doesn't focus much on birthday celebrations for Robin, it does add to the confusion about the ages of the characters in the show.

How Old Is Barney?

At the conclusion of How I Met Your Mother, it is unfortunate to see Robin and Barney's relationship fail, leading to their divorce in the show's flashforwards during season 9. The main reason behind their separation was Barney's inability to handle Robin's successful career. The couple officially called it quits in 2016 when Robin was 36 years old. Jumping forward to the show's future timeline in 2030, Robin is now 50 years old. It is at this stage that Robin and Ted reunite for good in the series finale, with Robin being 50 and Ted being 52. It should be noted that Robin had the distinction of being the first original main cast member to make an appearance in the show How I Met Your Father.

Barney, the oldest character among the group in season 1 of HIMYM, was born in 1976, making him approximately 29 when the show began. Despite the lack of a specific birthday episode, Barney disclosed in season 5, episode 19, "Zoo or False," that he was born seven years after the 1969 moon landing. Moving forward, Barney tied the knot with Robin at the age of 37 and welcomed his first child in 2020, at the age of 44.

How Old Is Lily?

Barney and Robin unfortunately went through a divorce in 2016, during which Barney would have turned 40 years old. In the future timeline of How I Met Your Mother, Barney is depicted as being 54 years old. The show initially kept Barney Stinson's real age a secret, but eventually revealed in the course of his backstory that he was born in 1976. Besides his brief appearance in the spinoff, where he is 46, the HIMYF fan theory about Barney being Sophie's father demonstrates the enduring legacy of Barney's character.

In terms of age, Ted, Lily, and Marshall are the easiest characters to answer for in "How I Met Your Mother." They all met as college freshmen and were born in the same year. Lily's age is mentioned throughout the series. In season 1, she was 27, and her birthday was featured in a memorable episode. As the series progresses, we see that the timeline slows down between seasons 3-5. In season 5, episode 18, titled "Say Cheese," Lily celebrates her 32nd birthday. Moreover, Marshall and Lily tied the knot in season 2, episode 21, titled "Something Borrowed," when Lily was around 29 years old.

How Old Is Marshall?

: Lily and Marshall's relationship stood out among the main characters on How I Met Your Mother, being the strongest right from the beginning and remained unwavering until the series concluded. The birth of their first child, Marvin Jr., takes place in the Season 7 finale of HIMYM, which indicates that Lily was approximately 33 years old during her pregnancy and welcomed their first child at the age of 34. In the future timeline, as depicted towards the end of the series, Marshall and Lily from HIMYM remained happily married even at the age of 52, blessed with a total of three children.

Regarding the age of the characters on How I Met Your Mother, it is quite straightforward to determine Marshall's birthdate. He was born in 1978, just like Ted and Lily, and at the beginning of the series, he is 27 years old. In an episode titled "Trilogy Time" in season 7 of HIMYM, it is revealed that Marshall started law school at Columbia in 2004 when he was 26 years old. By the time Marshall and Lily get married in season 2 of HIMYM, he is 29 years old.

How Old Is Tracy?

Marshall enjoys a blissful married life with his partner for a few years until Lily conceives in the season finale of HIMYM season 6. Eventually, in season 7, Lily gives birth, marking the moment when Marshall embraces fatherhood at the age of 34. In the controversial series finale of How I Met Your Mother, set in the future timeline, Marshall, now 52 years old, finds immense joy in raising his family alongside Lily.

In terms of the ages of the characters in How I Met Your Mother, the youngest is the titular mother. Tracy's birthday is unveiled to be September 13th, 1984, which coincides with the date of the pilot episode. In season 1 of How I Met Your Mother, Tracy would have been 21 years old, but her introduction only occurs during Barney and Robin's wedding in 2013, which takes place in season 9. It is then that she meets Ted when she is 29 years old, and they start dating shortly after.

Ted's Aging Creates Timeline Problems

Tracy's tenure on the show How I Met Your Mother was unjustly brief, leaving many dissatisfied with her outcome. The timeline of when she and Ted started a family remains unspecified, but it can be inferred that Ted was in his mid-to-late thirties when they had children, while Tracy was in her early thirties. At the age of 36, Tracy and Ted tied the knot in 2020, and their time together spanned a mere four years before she tragically passed away in 2024 at the age of 40. If Tracy had survived, she would have reached the age of 46 by the end of the future timeline in How I Met Your Mother.

In 2030, How I Met Your Mother revealed that Future Ted was narrating the story. He was approximately 52 years old at that time, while Ted's children Penny and Luke were 15 and 13 respectively. It was eventually discovered that Tracy had passed away six years earlier at the age of 40. However, there is a timeline discrepancy as "old Ted" appeared significantly younger just ten years before. This either suggests that time was unkind to Ted Mosby or that the character's aging was not consistently portrayed.

This significantly complicates the answer to the question "how old are the characters in How I Met Your Mother?". Nevertheless, there are various reasons why this timeline plot hole may exist. It is possible that the series never intended to run for its extended duration and delve into Ted's future life. However, the series' creators have actually confirmed that the ending to How I Met Your Mother was planned from the start. Ultimately, the age timeline quandaries regarding Ted will remain somewhat of an unsolved mystery.

How Old Are The HIMYM Characters During How I Met Your Father

Determining the ages of HIMYM characters in How I Met Your Father involves adding 17 years to account for the time gap between the pilot of How I Met Your Mother and its spinoff. Since Ted was 27 in 2005, his age in the main timeline of How I Met Your Father in 2022 is 44. The same is true for Marshall and Lily, who are also 44. Robin is 42, and Barney is 46. This approach also applies to calculating their ages in 2050. By adding 28 years to Ted's age in the 2022 timeline of How I Met Your Father, we find that Ted, Marshall, and Lily will all be 72 in 2050, as they were born in the same year.

In Future Sophie's HIMYF 2050 timeline, Sophie herself is 58 years old. Robin, Barney, and Tracy would be 70, 74, and 73 respectively. Robin and Barney have already made appearances in How I Met Your Father's 2022 timeline, along with Carl the bartender from MacLaren's and The Captain and Becky from the Pineapple Incident. It is likely that the rest of the main How I Met Your Mother cast will also appear in the spinoff soon. This guide will help to determine their ages in the specific timeline they appear.