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 42 of 3,663 notable people

0001 POET

Edgar Allan Poe

1809 - 1849

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0004 ESSAYIST

Ralph Waldo Emerson

1803 - 1882

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0047 JUDGE

Albert Pike

1809 - 1891

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0078 LAWYER

Charles Francis Adams Sr.

1807 - 1886

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0235 PHYSICIAN

Samuel Gridley Howe

1801 - 1876

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0237 POLITICIAN

Robert Charles Winthrop

1809 - 1894

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0244 SCULPTOR

Horatio Greenough

1805 - 1852

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0384 POLITICIAN

Caleb Blood Smith

1808 - 1864

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0576 OFFICER

James Barnes (general)

1801 - 1869

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0749 OFFICER

Charles Henry Davis

1807 - 1877

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0760 POET

William Henry Leonard Poe

1807 - 1831

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0771 ASTRONOM

Thomas Hubbard Sumner

1807 - 1876

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0852 PAINTER

Samuel Stillman Osgood

1808 - 1885

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0853 POLITICIAN

George Goldthwaite

1809 - 1879

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0862 SUFFRAGETTE

Martha Coffin Wright

1806 - 1875

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0919 LYRICIST

Samuel Francis Smith

1808 - 1895

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0972 LAWYER

Thomas D. Eliot

1808 - 1870

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1066 POLITICIAN

Samuel H. Walley

1805 - 1877

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1097 POLITICIAN

J. Wiley Edmands

1809 - 1877

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1213 PHYSICIAN

Harriot Kezia Hunt

1805 - 1875

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1226 PAINTER

Charles Codman

1800 - 1842

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1227 PHYSICIAN

Amos Binney

1803 - 1847

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1255 WRITER

Edmund Quincy (1808–1877)

1808 - 1877

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1420 POLITICIAN

Ephraim Wales Bull

1806 - 1895

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1470 PLAYWRIGHT

William Bayle Bernard

1807 - 1875

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1506 WORKER

Abby May

1800 - 1877

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1511 MERCHANT

Thomas O. Larkin

1802 - 1858

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1562 ARTIST

Benjamin F. Nutting

1803 - 1887

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1760 POLITICIAN

Josiah Quincy Jr.

1802 - 1882

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1845 MINISTER

William Henry Furness

1802 - 1896

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2016 OFFICER

Thomas Oliver Selfridge

1804 - 1902

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2087 BUSINESS

Russell Sturgis (1805–1887)

1805 - 1887

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2105 WRITER

Susan Paul

1809 - 1841

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2220 INVENTOR

Joseph Francis

1801 - 1893

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2309 LAWYER

Edward G. Loring

1802 - 1890

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2368 ABOLITIONIST

Ellis Gray Loring

1803 - 1858

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2528 CARTOGRAPHER

Thomas Gamaliel Bradford

1802 - 1887

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2757 LAWYER

George W. Richardson

1808 - 1886

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2773 PHYSICIAN

J. B. S. Jackson

1806 - 1879

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3130 MISTRESS

Mary Dominis

1803 - 1889

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3215 ENGINEER

Samuel M. Pook

1804 - 1878

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3614 CAMPAIGN

William P. Winchester

1801 - 1850

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