A mere mumbledy-mumble years ago I was working in a corporation that prided itself on international sales. To reduce confusion in paperwork they insisted on dd (in numbers) mmm (alpha) ccyy (numbers). Due to language issues, I'm not sure it helped all that much, but it's fairly clear and I've kept it up. So Livvy's birthday is 11 Apr 1999; Cassy's is 11 Jul 1999; and today is 19 Feb 2002.

For what it's worth...