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
Officer63
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Showing 63 of 3,663 notable people

0054 OFFICER

Henry Knox

1750 - 1806

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0211 OFFICER

Charles Francis Adams Jr.

1835 - 1915

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0218 OFFICER

David Porter (naval officer)

1780 - 1843

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0282 OFFICER

Edwin Vose Sumner

1797 - 1863

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0466 OFFICER

Joseph Dunford

Born 1955

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0573 OFFICER

Paul X. Kelley

1928 - 2019

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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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0802 OFFICER

Josiah Snelling

1782 - 1828

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0851 OFFICER

Joseph T. O'Callahan

1905 - 1964

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0890 OFFICER

Benjamin Hallowell Carew

1761 - 1834

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0981 OFFICER

Bing West

Born 1940

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1061 OFFICER

George D. Murray

1889 - 1956

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1091 OFFICER

William H. Blanchard

1916 - 1966

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1417 OFFICER

Sir Isaac Coffin, 1st Baronet

1759 - 1839

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1509 OFFICER

Joseph Warren Revere (general)

1812 - 1880

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1683 OFFICER

John Rous

1702 - 1760

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1708 OFFICER

Thomas J.C. Amory

1828 - 1864

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1746 OFFICER

John C. Cremony

1815 - 1879

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1812 OFFICER

Robert F. McDermott

1920 - 2006

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1889 OFFICER

Phil Rasmussen

1918 - 2005

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1954 OFFICER

James D. Morgan

1810 - 1896

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1991 OFFICER

John Marston (sailor)

1795 - 1885

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1992 OFFICER

Henry L. Eustis

1819 - 1885

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2007 OFFICER

Richard Wainwright (American Civil War naval officer)

1817 - 1862

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2012 OFFICER

William A. Worton

1897 - 1973

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2016 OFFICER

Thomas Oliver Selfridge

1804 - 1902

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2032 OFFICER

Francis J. Higginson

1843 - 1931

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2051 OFFICER

Joseph P. Hoar

Born 1934

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2118 OFFICER

Samuel P. Spear

1815 - 1875

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2154 OFFICER

Thomas G. Stevenson

1836 - 1864

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2288 OFFICER

Thomas Oliver Selfridge Jr.

1836 - 1924

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2306 OFFICER

Caspar Crowninshield

1837 - 1897

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2442 OFFICER

Kevin Reilly (Louisiana politician)

1928 - 2012

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2455 OFFICER

Barbara J. Bishop

1920 - 2005

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2496 OFFICER

Thomas Sherwin

1839 - 1914

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2499 OFFICER

John Flerlage

Born 1958

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2582 OFFICER

Horace Brooks

1814 - 1894

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2603 OFFICER

Thomas Kilby Smith

1820 - 1887

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2615 OFFICER

Allen Melancthon Sumner

1882 - 1918

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2707 OFFICER

Thomas G. Kelley

Born 1939

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2742 OFFICER

Robert M. Webster

1892 - 1972

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2752 OFFICER

Charles W. Adams (Confederate general)

1817 - 1878

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2759 OFFICER

George Francis McGinnis

1826 - 1910

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2765 OFFICER

John J. McGinty III

1940 - 2014

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2838 OFFICER

William P. Driscoll

Born 1947

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2925 OFFICER

Frederick T. Moore Jr.

1914 - 1969

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2985 OFFICER

Richard Dunleavy

Born 1933

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3062 OFFICER

Thomas H. Dunham

1840 - 1925

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3117 OFFICER

Charles Jackson Paine

1833 - 1916

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3127 OFFICER

Roberta L. Hazard

1934 - 2017

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3128 OFFICER

Edward B. Cole

1879 - 1918

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3353 OFFICER

Herman Nickerson Jr.

1913 - 2000

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3379 OFFICER

Greely S. Curtis

1830 - 1897

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3389 OFFICER

John A. Collins

1931 - 2003

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3394 OFFICER

Percival C. Pope

1841 - 1922

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3402 OFFICER

Charles Sawyer Russell

1831 - 1866

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3473 OFFICER

Joseph Cushing Edmands

1842 - 1878

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3487 OFFICER

John P. McDonough (chaplain)

Born 1928

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3490 OFFICER

Arthur R. Curtis

1842 - 1925

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3528 OFFICER

Anthony T. Shtogren

1917 - 2003

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3529 OFFICER

Samuel Bradford Jones

1826 - 1908

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3542 OFFICER

John Joseph Doherty

1919 - 1942

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