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 18 of 3,663 notable people

0218 OFFICER

David Porter (naval officer)

1780 - 1843

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0479 ENTREPRENEUR

Frederic Tudor

1783 - 1864

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0802 OFFICER

Josiah Snelling

1782 - 1828

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0974 PAINTER

James Frothingham

1786 - 1864

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1067 POLITICIAN

William Parmenter

1789 - 1866

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1201 POLITICIAN

Leonard Jarvis

1781 - 1854

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1653 WRITER

Eliza Lee Cabot Follen

1787 - 1860

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1815 BANK

James Savage (banker)

1784 - 1873

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1824 AUTHOR

Lucius Manlius Sargent

1786 - 1867

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1873 MERCHANT

John Perkins Cushing

1787 - 1862

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2148 LAWYER

James T. Austin

1784 - 1870

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2271 TURNER

Phokion Heinrich Clias

1782 - 1854

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2285 ENGINEER

Elisha Collier

1788 - 1856

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2360 POLITICIAN

Charles Wells (American politician)

1786 - 1866

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2383 MINISTER

Charles Russell Lowell Sr.

1782 - 1861

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2818 LIBRARIAN

Samuel Cooper Thacher

1785 - 1818

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2874 BUSINESS

Samuel Cabot Jr.

1784 - 1863

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2940 POET

Eliza Townsend

1788 - 1854

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