39.2868° N, 76.6201° W
BALTIMORE
Most Famous People Born in Baltimore, United States
- Notable people
- 2,329
- Peak decade
- 1950s
- Median birth year
- 1939
- Most distinctive
- Baseball 7.0×
A port city whose distinctive professions are baseball at seven times the global rate, basketball, and an unusually thick column of officers, novelists, and lawyers — the shape of a Mid-Atlantic city that has always sat at the meeting point of the Navy yard, the courts, and the literary establishment. Frank Zappa, Babe Ruth, Michael Phelps, and Edgar Allan Poe (who died here, not born) all belong to this bench, and the 19th-century tail is heavier than in most American cities its size.
One face per decade — the most globally famous figure born in Baltimore during each.
Notable Births by Decade
Click a decade to filter the list below. Peak: 1950s with 245 notable births.
What Baltimore Is Known For
Click any row to filter the list of people below.
Politician is Baltimore's biggest profession — 11% of all notables (255).
Baltimore over-indexes on baseball — 7.0× the global rate.
Baltimore under-produces painter — only 0.6× the global rate.
Profession Mix Over Time
Each band shows a profession family's share of Baltimore's notable births by decade. Hover the chart for the breakdown at any decade.
- Sports
- Politics & Law
- Film & TV
- Writing
- Science
- Music
- Other
- Filtered to 1790s Clear ×
John P. Kennedy
1795 - 1870
Benjamin Chew Howard
1791 - 1872
John Joseph Abercrombie
1798 - 1877
James Carroll (Maryland politician)
1791 - 1873
Richard Sprigg Steuart
1797 - 1876
John J. Chanche
1795 - 1852
William Howard (engineer)
1793 - 1834