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 28 of 3,663 notable people

0054 OFFICER

Henry Knox

1750 - 1806

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0365 POLITICIAN

Christopher Gore

1758 - 1827

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0448 AUTHOR

Royall Tyler

1757 - 1826

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0639 POLITICIAN

Jonathan Mason (Massachusetts politician)

1756 - 1831

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0690 SOLDIER

David Ochterlony

1758 - 1825

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0830 POLITICIAN

Jonathan Williams (engineer)

1751 - 1815

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0989 LAWYER

Samuel Sewall (congressman)

1757 - 1814

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1069 WRITER

Hannah Mather Crocker

1752 - 1829

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1196 DIPLOMAT

James Bowdoin III

1752 - 1811

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1235 POET

Sarah Wentworth Apthorp Morton

1759 - 1846

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1305 LAWYER

William Dummer Powell

1755 - 1834

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1306 BUSINESS

Gardiner Greene

1753 - 1832

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1400 POLITICIAN

Edward Dowse

1756 - 1828

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1417 OFFICER

Sir Isaac Coffin, 1st Baronet

1759 - 1839

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1536 POLITICIAN

William Phillips Jr.

1750 - 1827

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1606 MINISTER

James Freeman (clergyman)

1759 - 1835

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1611 MINISTER

William Bentley

1759 - 1819

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1789 BUSINESS

Thomas Melvill (American patriot)

1751 - 1832

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1905 MILITAR

Henry Burbeck

1754 - 1848

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1971 JOURNALIST

John Fenno

1751 - 1798

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2123 PRIEST

John Thayer (priest)

1755 - 1815

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2259 FARMER

Benjamin Bussey

1757 - 1842

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2641 AMERICAN REVOLUTION

Lucy Flucker Knox

1756 - 1824

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2727 POLITICIAN

Samuel Gay

1755 - 1847

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3014 FARMER

Betsy Hager

1750 - 1843

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3484 BUSINESS

Benjamin Clark Cutler

1756 - 1810

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3618 LAWYER

Thomas Edwards (TJAG)

1753 - 1806

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3643 PHYSICIAN

Thomas Welsh (Mediziner)

1752 - 1831

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