At first glance, this looks like a simple question, but there’s a clever twist hiding in the wording! Penny has five children. The first is named January, the second February, the third March, and the fourth April. Now comes the question that’s making people stop and read twice: What is the name of the fifth child? Take a moment before answering!

Most people immediately continue the pattern of calendar months and say May. After all, January, February, March, April, and May seem like the obvious sequence. But the riddle asks you to read carefully rather than simply follow the months.

Here’s the catch: the very first sentence says, “Penny has 5 children.” Some versions of this riddle use similar wording to trick readers into overlooking a clue hidden in the question itself. However, in this exact version, Penny’s name is given—not the fifth child’s—so the wording alone doesn’t conclusively reveal the child’s name.

That means the puzzle is a little more ambiguous than it first appears. May is the natural answer if the names follow the calendar-month pattern, but the riddle doesn’t explicitly confirm that the fifth child is named May. Without another clue, the name cannot be determined for certain.

So, what was your first answer—May, or did you spot the trick? Share this riddle with your friends and see who reads carefully before jumping to a conclusion!