Answer:
Yes, there are only 676 different possibilities, which is less than the number of people in the group.
Step-by-step explanation:
Assuming that the English alphabet has 26 different letters, the number of possible combinations of first and last name initials is:
[tex]n = 26*26\\n=676[/tex]
If we try to assign a different combination to each person in the group, it would only be possible to do it for the first 676 people, while the remaining 24 would have a repeated first and last initial. Therefore, the answer is yes, there must be 2 people who have matching first and last initials.