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
- Field: Lawyer Clear ×
Alger Hiss
1904 - 1996
William Walker Atkinson
1862 - 1932
Pauli Murray
1910 - 1985
David K. E. Bruce
1898 - 1977
Philip Perlman
1890 - 1960
Emily Giffin
Born 1972
Benjamin Chew Howard
1791 - 1872
Sarah T. Hughes
1896 - 1985
Henry P. H. Bromwell
1823 - 1903
Ken Mehlman
Born 1966
Amy Berman Jackson
Born 1954
Michael Peroutka
Born 1952
Brantz Mayer
1809 - 1879
Andre M. Davis
Born 1949
Joseph Flom
1923 - 2011
Jeremiah Chase
1748 - 1828
William J. O'Brien
1836 - 1905
Henry Stockbridge Jr.
1856 - 1924
John Ambrose Meyer
1899 - 1969
Kurt Schmoke
Born 1949
James L. Connaughton
Born 1961
John P. Poe Sr.
1836 - 1909
Alia Malek
Born 1974
Upton Sheredine
1740 - 1800
James Barroll Ricaud
1808 - 1866
Edgar Allan Poe (Maryland attorney general)
1871 - 1961
Tom Rothman
Born 1954
John Carter Rose
1861 - 1927
Gregg Costa
Born 1972
Benjamin Ignatius Hayes
1815 - 1877
Leo E. Strine Jr.
Born 1964
John Gill Jr.
1850 - 1918
Christopher Hughes (diplomat)
1786 - 1849
John Ries Bartels
1897 - 1997
Stephen H. Sachs
Born 1934
Alexander Harvey II
1923 - 2017
Harris Hartz
Born 1947
Theodore Marburg
1862 - 1946
Cecilia Altonaga
Born 1962
Frederic N. Smalkin
Born 1946
J. Frederick Motz
Born 1942
Robert Jefferson Breckinridge Jr.
1833 - 1915
Morris Ames Soper
1873 - 1963
Benson Everett Legg
Born 1947
Robert Dorsey Watkins
1900 - 1986
David Williamson Carroll
1816 - 1905
George Levi Russell III
Born 1965
Richard D. Bennett
Born 1947
Alfred H. Moses
Born 1929
Roger W. Brown
1940 - 2009
Mary Ellen Barbera
Born 1951
Otto Schoenrich
1876 - 1977
Laurie McKinnon
Born 1960
William R. Travers
1819 - 1887
Walter Evan Black Jr.
1926 - 2014
William Calvin Chesnut
1873 - 1962
Shirley M. Watts
Born 1959
Louis Guirola Jr.
Born 1951
Alvin W. Thompson
Born 1953
Lydia Kay Griggsby
Born 1968
Robert C. Murphy
1926 - 2000
Donald Hiss
1906 - 1989
William M. Nickerson
Born 1933
William D. Quarles Jr.
Born 1948
Stuart O. Simms
Born 1950
Irvin B. Nathan
-
Peter Trooboff
Born 1942
Bernard Ades
1903 - 1986
Gerald Curran
1939 - 2013
Alan M. Wilner
Born 1937
Jean Camper Cahn
1935 - 1991
William L. Marbury Jr.
1901 - 1988
Thomas M. DiBiagio
Born 1960
Hudson Snowden Marshall
1870 - 1931
Meyer Cardin
1907 - 2005
Harrison Lee Winter
1921 - 1990
Thomas John Morris
1837 - 1912
Frank Albert Kaufman
1916 - 1997
Roszel Cathcart Thomsen
1900 - 1992
Jack Heise
1924 - 2009
Patrick E. Donovan
-
William E. Matthews
1845 - 1894
George Kern
1926 - 2012
Alfred Jenkins Shriver
1867 - 1939
Thomas S. Baer
1843 - 1906
Richard E. S. Toomey
1862 - 1948
George M. Gill
1803 - 1887
James Wilmer Dallam
1818 - 1847