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.
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 novelist — 3.5× the global rate.
Boston under-produces football — only 0.2× the global rate.
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.
- Politics & Law
- Sports
- Writing
- Film & TV
- Science
- Music
- Other
- Field: Lawyer Clear ×
Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.
1841 - 1935
Charles Francis Adams Sr.
1807 - 1886
Elliot Richardson
1920 - 1999
Wendell Phillips
1811 - 1884
Gardiner Greene Hubbard
1822 - 1897
Robert Treat Paine
1731 - 1814
Harold Hongju Koh
Born 1954
John Copley, 1st Baron Lyndhurst
1772 - 1863
Charles Devens
1820 - 1891
Francis Dana
1743 - 1811
John Quincy Adams II
1833 - 1894
Josiah Quincy II
1744 - 1775
John T. Noonan Jr.
1926 - 2017
Charles Sumner Hamlin
1861 - 1938
Samuel D. Warren
1852 - 1910
Horace Gray
1828 - 1902
Benjamin Thomas (congressman)
1813 - 1878
George Henry Gordon
1823 - 1886
Robert H. Rines
1922 - 2009
John J. Sullivan (diplomat)
Born 1959
Thomas D. Eliot
1808 - 1870
John Patrick Higgins
1893 - 1955
Samuel Sewall (congressman)
1757 - 1814
Ezekiel Bacon
1776 - 1870
John A. Rizzo
Born 1948
Henry James (biographer)
1879 - 1947
Francis Wayland III
1826 - 1904
James G. Maguire
1853 - 1920
Henry Sherman Boutell
1856 - 1926
Boyce F. Martin Jr.
1935 - 2016
William Dummer Powell
1755 - 1834
Laurence Curtis
1893 - 1989
Earl J. Silbert
Born 1936
Joseph Walsh (Massachusetts)
1875 - 1946
Isaac Parker (Massachusetts judge)
1768 - 1830
Neil Chayet
1939 - 2017
Robert O. Harris
1854 - 1926
Marilyn Mosby
Born 1980
Francis Cabot Lowell (judge)
1855 - 1911
Joseph F. O'Connell
1872 - 1942
Robert Grant (novelist)
1852 - 1940
Walter R. Mansfield
1911 - 1987
John G. Heyburn II
1948 - 2015
Patricia J. Williams
Born 1951
John Lowell (judge, 1865–1884)
1824 - 1897
Miles Crowley
1859 - 1921
Gregory G. Katsas
Born 1964
Richard S. Cohen
1937 - 1998
Robert M. O'Neil
1934 - 2018
Lisa Monaco
Born 1968
Marc Rotenberg
Born 1960
Mark L. Wolf
Born 1946
Jonathan Sewall
1729 - 1796
Peter Rodman
1943 - 2008
Margaret Stock
Born 1962
Joseph Henry Beale
1861 - 1943
Prescott F. Hall
1868 - 1921
James G. Carr
Born 1940
David Niles
1888 - 1952
Ellen Segal Huvelle
Born 1948
Frederick O. Prince
1818 - 1899
Ruth Abrams
1930 - 2019
Christine Griffin
Born 1950
Neria Douglass
Born 1952
Bailey Aldrich
1907 - 2002
James T. Austin
1784 - 1870
Allison Dale Burroughs
Born 1961
David E. McGiffert
1926 - 2005
Charles Edward Wyzanski Jr.
1906 - 1986
Lelia J. Robinson
1850 - 1891
Alberto J. Mora
Born 1951
Catherine C. Blake
Born 1950
David S. Cohen (attorney)
Born 1963
Thomas Finneran
Born 1950
Edward G. Loring
1802 - 1890
Raymond P. Moore
Born 1953
Jennie Loitman Barron
1891 - 1969
Paul Edward Plunkett
1935 - 2018
Robert A. Sherman
Born 1953
Patti B. Saris
Born 1951
Jeremiah Gridley
1702 - 1767
Dwight Dudley
Born 1954
Thomas Patrick Thornton
1898 - 1985
William F. Downes
Born 1946
David Sutherland Nelson
1933 - 1998
George T. Conway III
Born 1963
Thomas P. O'Brien
Born 1960
Elijah Adlow
1896 - 1982
Thomas J. Connolly
Born 1958
Frederick G. Katzmann
1875 - 1953
Sidney Sugarman
1904 - 1974
George Fingold
1908 - 1958
Edward C. Johnson II
1898 - 1984
George W. Richardson
1808 - 1886
Joshua Hall Bates
1817 - 1908
Peter Bynoe
Born 1951
Harvey Rosenfield
Born 1952
Herbert Parker (Massachusetts politician)
1856 - 1939
Tamara W. Ashford
Born 1968
John Tye (whistleblower)
Born 1976
Thomas C. Wales
1952 - 2001
Adolphus W. Green
1844 - 1917
John R. Murphy
1856 - 1932
David E. Harrison
Born 1933
John Durham (lawyer)
Born 1950
Richard David Emery
Born 1946
Charles Hiller Innes
1870 - 1939
Benjamin F. Haines
1876 - 1942
Champ Lyons
Born 1940
Andrea Campbell
Born 1982
Fred I. Parker
1938 - 2003
Bertram Ellis
1860 - 1920
Owen A. Galvin
1852 - 1897
George Eustis Sr.
1796 - 1858
Francis Ford (judge)
1882 - 1975
William Thaddeus Coleman III
Born 1947
Edward J. McCormack Jr.
1923 - 1997
Frances Jalet-Cruz
1910 - 1994
Giovanni Prezioso
Born 1957
John Rolly Ross
1899 - 1963
Winfield F. Prime
Born 1860
George A. Scigliano
1874 - 1906
Robert Hagopian
1911 - 1995
Charles Stack (lawyer)
Born 1935
Paul G. Kirk Sr.
1904 - 1981
A. Arthur Giddon
1909 - 2010
Michael F. Flaherty Sr.
Born 1936
James Augustus Fox
1827 - 1901
Horace H. Coolidge
1832 - 1912
Emily Gray Rice
Born 1955
Frank Fuller
1827 - 1915
Edward F. Lyons Jr.
1899 - 1990
Joseph Lewis Stackpole
1838 - 1904
Thomas Edwards (TJAG)
1753 - 1806
Peter K. Babalas
1922 - 1987