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There's no greater aphrodisiac than Christmas Eve, apparently.

For reasons that aren't entirely clear, several websites this week glommed on to a New York Times chart that shows how popular your birthday is, with each day of the year ranked from 1 to 366.

Most websites simply took the chart and did the obvious with it – throw it out there for readers to see how popular their birthdays are.

But credit the dirty minds at the Atlantic Wire for taking that data and doing some sexy times detective work with it. Because if you know what the most popular birthday is, then you can do the math and figure out what the most popular day of the year to conceive is. And as the Atlantic Wire notes, the most popular days for baby-making "aren't at all random."

According to the data, the most common birthday in the U.S. is Sept. 16. Using a conception calendar and working backward, the Atlantic Wire's Eric Randall points out that means the most popular date of conception is Dec. 24.

But the look of love doesn't stop when the presents are opened. The third most popular birthday is Sept. 23. Do the math, and that means the third most popular date to conceive is Dec. 31. And yes, you might object that this math is fuzzy at best given the realities of pregnancy (it's not like its always 38 weeks, after all) but there too Randall makes a good point: With the top 10 common birthdays all falling between Sept. 9 and Sept. 24, it seems unavoidable that the holiday season is prime time for making babies.

If you're wondering about Valentine's Day's ranking, well, it turns out that it might be a great time for chocolates, roses and romance, but not so much for conception. As Randall points out, people conceived on Feb. 14 would be born on Nov. 7, which is the 225th most popular birthday.

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