42.3449° N, 71.0753° W

BOSTON

Most Famous People Born in Boston, United States

Notable people
3,663
Peak decade
1950s
Median birth year
1926
Most distinctive
Novelist 3.5×

America's oldest civic intelligentsia. Boston's notables are unusually concentrated in the 1700s and 1800s by American standards, and the distinctive shelves still read like a Yankee almanac — novelists, lawyers, military officers, mathematicians, and diplomats, the trades of a city where Harvard, the State House, and the Old North Church share a few square miles. The modern half tilts more conventionally toward Red Sox baseball, actors, and a deep college-bred music scene.

Through the Decades

One face per decade — the most globally famous figure born in Boston during each.

Notable Births by Decade

Click a decade to filter the list below. Peak: 1950s with 348 notable births.

What Boston Is Known For

Click any row to filter the list of people below.

Actor is Boston's biggest profession — 9% of all notables (314).

Boston over-indexes on novelist3.5× the global rate.

Boston under-produces football — only 0.2× the global rate.

  1. Actor314
  2. Politician312
  3. Writer149
  4. Lawyer135
  5. Baseball110
  6. Painter106
  7. Music102
  8. Football87
  1. Novelist503.5×
  2. Baseball1102.6×
  3. Officer632.6×
  4. Mathematician452.5×
  5. Lawyer1352.1×
  6. Music1021.9×
  7. Diplomat371.7×
  8. Actor3141.6×
  1. Football870.2×

Profession Mix Over Time

Each band shows a profession family's share of Boston's notable births by decade. Hover the chart for the breakdown at any decade.

16501700175018001850190019502000
  • Politics & Law
  • Sports
  • Writing
  • Film & TV
  • Science
  • Music
  • Other
All3,663
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Showing 13 of 3,663 notable people

0002 POLYMATH

Benjamin Franklin

1706 - 1790

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0879 POLITICIAN

Andrew Oliver

1706 - 1774

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0987 PAINTER

Joseph Badger

1707 - 1765

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1117 MERCHANT

Edward Shippen III

1703 - 1781

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1253 MATHEMATICIAN

Isaac Greenwood

1702 - 1745

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1673 AUTHOR

Jane Turell

1708 - 1735

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1674 CLERGY

Charles Chauncy (1705–1787)

1705 - 1787

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1683 OFFICER

John Rous

1702 - 1760

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1758 HISTORIAN

John Callender (clergyman)

1706 - 1748

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2111 POET

Joseph Green (poet)

1706 - 1780

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2492 MINISTER

John Lowell (minister)

1704 - 1767

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2529 LAWYER

Jeremiah Gridley

1702 - 1767

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2670 SOLDIER

John Goffe

1701 - 1786

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