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
Sort By

Showing 20 of 3,663 notable people

0286 POLITICIAN

William Hooper

1742 - 1790

Preview
0294 COMPOSER

William Billings

1746 - 1800

Preview
0386 PHYSICIAN

John Jeffries

1744 - 1819

Preview
0459 ARMY

William Dawes

1745 - 1799

Preview
0493 LAWYER

Francis Dana

1743 - 1811

Preview
0569 HISTORIAN

Jeremy Belknap

1744 - 1798

Preview
0674 LAWYER

Josiah Quincy II

1744 - 1775

Preview
0927 PAINTER

Henry Pelham (engraver)

1749 - 1806

Preview
1143 POLITICIAN

Joseph Allen (congressman)

1749 - 1827

Preview
1219 JUDGE

James Monk

1745 - 1826

Preview
1535 PRIVATEER

George Robert Twelves Hewes

1742 - 1840

Preview
1553 POLITICIAN

Jonathan Jackson (politician)

1743 - 1810

Preview
1618 PAINTER

Isaiah Thomas (publisher)

1749 - 1831

Preview
1635 HOSTESS

Dorothy Quincy

1747 - 1830

Preview
1934 BUSINESS

Ward Nicholas Boylston

1747 - 1828

Preview
1936 POLITICIAN

Jonathan L. Austin

1748 - 1826

Preview
2089 SPYMASTER

David Henley

1749 - 1823

Preview
2218 MARINE

John Foster Williams

1743 - 1814

Preview
2235 ARMY

Henry Jackson (general)

1747 - 1809

Preview
3226 CONSUL

Thomas Hickling

1745 - 1834

Preview